18 GKOUSE AND WILD TUKKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 



or shoots,' 0.55 percent; flowers, 0.34 percent, and leaves, 15.20 percent. 

 This is only half the amount of similar food taken by the ruffed 

 grouse. Naturally the prairie hen is much less given to budding than 

 the ruffed grouse, but it has been known to pluck buds of poplar, 

 elm, pine, apple, dwarf birch {Betida glandulosa) , and black birch 

 {B. lenta). " I have counted more than 50 on a single apple tree," 

 writes Audubon," " the buds of ^^ hich they entirely destroyed in a few 

 hours. * * * They were, in fact, looked upon with more abhor- 

 rence than the crows are at present in Massachusetts and Maine, on 

 account of the mischief they committed among the fruit trees of the 

 orchards during winter, when they fed on their buds, or while in the 

 spring months, they picked up the grain in the fields." This mischief 

 was due largely to the abundance of the birds, a condition never 

 likely to return. 



The prairie hen shows a marked taste for flowers. A delicate pink 

 rosebud had been plucked by a bird shot at Omega, Nebr., in June. 

 More than a thousand golden-rod heads were found in another. 

 Additional composite flowers devoured were Amphiachyris {Amphla- 

 ■fdiyris ch'acunculoides) , sweet balsam {GnaphaUum ohtusifolium) , 

 and others. The flower and leaf buds of birch and apple also are 

 taken. Small gi-een ovaries of RueUia and blue-eyed grass were noted 

 in a few cases. These birds eat leaves, including those of the butter- 

 cup, everlasting (Antemuma), red and white clover, and the interest- 

 ing water milfoil {MyriophyUum) , often grown in goldfish globes. 



Food of the Young. 



The economic value of the prairie hen is due mainly to its destruc- 

 tion of weeds and harmful insects, the latter constituting almost the 

 ■.sole food of the downy chick. Unfortunately only two stomachs of 

 young birds Avere to be had for examination. The chicks were re- 

 ■cently hatched Texas prairie hens {TympanKchus cmiericamis att- 

 v)ateri). They had eaten 1 tree cricket, 5 undetermined caterpillars, 

 1 imago of the very destructive Angoumois grain moth, 1 leaf beetle 

 iMonoxia jmncticoUis)^ and 19 12-spotted cucumber beetles {Dia- 

 hrotica 12-punctata) ^ which do not always confine themselves to 

 ciucumbers, but injure more than a dozen other cultivated plants. 



THE HEATH HEN. 



( Tympan uchus cupido. ) 



The heath hen, which, to casual view, appears like a small-sized 

 prairie hen, inhabits the scrub oaks of the island of Marthas Vine- 

 yard, on the coast of Massachusetts. It was formerly abundant in 



a Ornith. Biog., II, pp. 491 and 501, 1835. 



