BIRDS OF KANSAS. 225 



Their nests are placed on the ground, in groves and at the 

 edge of timber; a place worked out to fit the body, and rather 

 sparing!}' and loosely lined with grasses and leaves. Eggs seven 

 to twelve, 1.55x1.15; cream white, occasionally faintly blotched 

 with drab or buff; in form, oval approaching pyriform. 



Genus TYMPANUCHUS Gloger. 

 "Tail of eighteen feathers, short, half the lengthened wings; the feathers 

 stiffened and more or less graduated. Bare, inflatable air sac of the neck con- 

 cealed by a tuft of long, stiff, lanceolate feathers; an inconspicuous crest on the 

 vertex. Tarsi feathered only to near the base, the lower joint scutellate. Cul- 

 men between the nasal fosste scarcely one-third the total length." 



Tympanuchus americanus (Reich.). 



PRAIRIE HEN. 

 PLATE XIII. 



Common in the eastern to middle portion of the State, and 

 spreading westward with its settlement. Formerly abundant, 

 but rapidly decreasing in numbers, and, unless the law protect- 

 ing them is strictly enforced, especially so far as it relates to 

 trapping, they will soon become exterminated; for during the 

 extreme cold winters, when the ground is covered with snow, 

 hunger overcomes their fear, and the last one is easily entrapped. 



B. 464. R. 477. C. 563. G. 219, 104. U. 305. 



Habitat. Prairies of the Mississippi valley, east to Indiana 

 and Kentucky; north to Manitoba; west to eastern Dakota; 

 south to Texas and Louisiana. (The eastern bird, T. cup'ulo., un- 

 til of late supposed to be this species, is now apparently extinct, 

 except ou the island of Martha's Vineyard.) 



Sp. Chae. '•'•Male: Ground color above, ochraceous brown, tinged with gray- 

 ish; beneath white, the feathers of the jugulum dark rusty chestnut beneath the 

 surface. Head mostly deep buff. Upper parts much broken by broad, trans- 

 verse spots or irregular bars of deep black, this color predominating largely 

 over the lighter tints. Primaries and tail plain dusky; the former with round- 

 ish spots of pale ochraceous on outer webs, the latter very narrowly tijijied with 

 white. Lower parts with irregular-, continuous, sharply-defined, broad bars or 

 narrow bands of clear dusky brown. A broad stripe of plain, brownish black 

 on side of head, beneath the eye, from rictus to end of auriculars; a blotch of 

 the same beneath the middle of the auriculars and the top of the head mostly 

 blackish, leaving a broad superciliary and maxillary stripe, and the whole throat 

 immaculate buff. Neck tufts 3.50 inches long, deep black; the longer ones uni- 

 form, the shorter with only the edge black, the whole middle portion pale buff. 

 —15 



