PEDIOCjETES. 203 



riorly into spots ; chest tinged with bi'ownish. Doimiy young : Bright 

 buff-yellow, tinged with lemon-yellow, washed on chest and sides with 

 pale rusty; a nai'row streak behind eye, several irregular spots on crown 

 and occiput, stripe across shoulder, and longitudinal blotches down back 

 and rump, black. Male: Length about 18.00-19.00, wing 8.60-9.40 

 (9.04), tail 4.00-4.30 (4.16). Female : Length about 17.50, wing 8.60-8.75 

 (8.65), tail 3.60-4.00 (3.80). Eggs 1.66 X 1-24. Hab. Prairies of Mis- 

 sissippi Valley, south to Louisiana and Texas, west to middle Kansas, 

 Nebraska, and Dakota, north to Wisconsin, east to Indiana and Kentucky. 



305. T. americanus (Eeich.). Prairie Hen. 

 If. Scapulars with large and very conspicuous terminal spots of buffy whitish ; 

 neck-tufts of adult male composed of not more than ten lanceolate, 

 pointed feathers. Male : Wing 8.60, tail 4.00. Female : Wing 8.00, tail 

 3.90. Hah. Island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. (Formerly, 

 also Long Island, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, Virginia, etc., but 

 now apparently extinct except on Martha's Vineyard, and there in 



danger of extermination.) 306. T. cupido (Linn.). Heath Hen. 



a^. Darker bars of back and rump treble, consisting of a perfectly continuous brown 

 bar enclosed between two nai'rower black bars ; darker bars of sides and flanks 

 ,25, or less, wide, bicolored, the broader light brown bar being enclosed be- 

 tween two narrower dusky ones ; wing less than 8.50 in adult male, usually 

 much less than 8.00 in adult female. 



Neck-tufts of adult male with feathers broad and rounded at tips, as in 

 T. americanus. Male: Wing 8.20-8.30, tail 4.00-4.20. Female: Wing 

 8.00-8.20, tail 3.50-4.00. Hah. Eastern border of Great Plains, from 

 Nebraska (?), southwestern Kansas, southwestern Missouri (?), and 

 western part of Indian Territory to Avestern Texas. 



307. T. pallidicinctus Eidgw. Lesser Prairie Hen. 



Genus PEDIOC-^TES Baird. (Page 185, pi. LIX., fig. 2.) 



Species. 



Common Characters. — Adult male : Above varied with irregular spotting and 

 barring of black and brownish ; wing-coverts with large roundish white spots, and 

 scapulars streaked medially with same ; outer webs of quills spotted with white ; 

 beneath white, varied with mostly V-shaped marks of dusky, chiefly on anterior 

 and lateral portions. Adult female : Similar to male, but somewhat smaller, and 

 with middle tail-feathers shorter. Young : Above brownish, spotted and barred 

 with black and conspicuously streaked with white ; outer webs of quills spotted 

 with white ; lower parts dull whitish, the chest, breast, sides, and flanks spotted 

 with dusky. Downy young : Bright buffy yellow, the upper parts tinged with light 

 rusty and coarsely marbled with black ; a small black spot on middle of crown, 

 and several larger black markings on occiput and hind-neck, but fore-part of head, 

 all round, immaculate. Length 15.00-19.00, wing 8.50-9.00, tail 4.00-5.50. Nest 



