PRAIRIE HEN. 17 



blue-eyed grass {Sisyrinchium graminoides) ^ shepherd's purse {Bursa 

 lursa-pastoris) , mercury seeds {Acalypha sp.), croton seeds {Croton 

 sp.), and seeds of purslane {Portulaca oleracea), the seeded pods of 

 the latter being plucked. 



GRAIN. 



As a grain eater the prairie hen heads the native gallinaceous 

 birds. Everybody who has gone ' chicken ' shooting knows how 

 closely the bird is associated with stubble fields. The stomachs and 

 crops examined in the investigation contained 31.06 percent of grain. 

 The bobwhite, another busy stubble feeder, takes only 17.38 percent. 

 The stomach of a grouse shot in June in Xebraska contained 100 

 kernels of corn and 500 grains of wheat. J. A. Loring, formerly of 

 the Biological Survey, during December in Xebraska found prairie 

 liens feeding in wheat stubble, about straw stacks, and along the edges 

 of cornfields. Doctor Hatch, in writing of their granivorous habits, 

 says : '^ 



• 



The grain fields afforded both food and protection for them, until the farmers 

 complained of them bitterlj-, but not half so bitterly as they did afterwards of 

 the bird destroyers who ran over their broad acres of wheat, oats, and corn 

 in the order of their ripening. 



Buckwheat, barley, oats, and millet are relished, but corn appears 

 to be the favorite cereal, amounting to 19.45 percent of the annual 

 food. Other grain, principally wheat, was in the ratio of ll.Gl per- 

 cent. Amos W. Butler reports that in Indiana, during September, 

 fields of ripening buckwheat are favorite feeding grounds.'' There is 

 reason to believe that sprouting grain is sometimes injured. Audubon 

 speaks of such injury in Kentucky, where the bird was extremely 

 abundant.*^ 



Like other gallinaceous birds, the prairie hen likes mast, though 

 naturally it obtains much less than the ruffed grouse. The stomach 

 contents showed the beaked hazelnut {Corylus rostmta) and acorns, 

 including, among others, those of the scrub oak {Quercus nana) and 

 tlie scarlet oak {Q. cocdnea). Like the ruffed gi'ouse, it swalloAvs 

 acorns whole. A bird shot in Minnesota in March had bolted 28 

 scarlet-oak acorns. 



LEAVES, FLOWEKS, AND SHOOTS. 



Like other grouse the prairie hen is an habitual browser, to the 

 extent of 25.09 percent of its food. This is divided as follows : Twigs 



a Birds of Minnesota, p. 16.3, 1892. 



&Ann. Rept. Dept. Geol. Ind., 1897. p. 7.58. 



cOrnith. Biog., II, p. 491, 1835. 



65G8— No. 24—05 m- 



