282 BULLETIN 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



hillock. The sitting hen allowed us to approach quite close before taking 

 wing. 



Mr. Ward informed me that the nests were almost invariably placed on top 

 of a rise, or on its sloping sides. The nests, though usually placed in open 

 situations, are extremely difficult to find, owing to the dichromatic arrange- 

 ment of the feathers, which so harmoniously blends with the surroundings 

 of the sitting bird. A far greater protection to the sitting hens is their non- 

 scent-giving powers during the nesting season, which was fully demonstrated 

 the following spring, when I again visited that vicinity in order to secure 

 a series of photographs. 



In company with one of the best-known chicken dogs, I thrashed over several 

 sections of bunch grass land where chickens were common and known to 

 nest each year, but without success. I found no hens off the nests during the 

 heat of the day, but quite frequently saw them flying to the feeding grounds 

 after twilight. Several times while hunting their nests I felt sure that I was 

 within a few feet of the sitting birds, but was compelled to give up the search. 

 The hens are close, hard sitters, and very few nests are found. Frairie fires 

 expose many nests and are the nesting hen's worst enemy. 



Eggs. — The full set seems to consist of 11 to 13 eggs, so far as we 

 know-. The eggs are ovate in shape, smooth, and rather glossy. The 

 colors vary from " cream color " to " ivory yellow ' ; in my set ; most 

 of the eggs are sprinkled with very fine dots of pale brown or olive ; 

 but some are nearly or quite immaculate. Mr. Colvin calls them straw 

 color or straw buff. Bendire (1892) says: "The ground color varies 

 from pale creamy white to buff. The markings, which are all very 

 fine, not larger than pin-points, are lavender colored. More than 

 two-thirds of the eggs are unspotted, and all look so till closely 

 examined." 



The measurements of 47 eggs average 41.9 by 32 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 43.5 by 33.5, 40.5 by 33, and 

 40.7 by 30.4 millimeters. 



Plumages. — I have never seen a downy young of the lesser prairie 

 chicken, but probably it is much like the chick of its northern rela- 

 tive. The sequence of molts and plumages is doubtless similar to 

 those of the prairie chicken. A young bird, about one-third grown 

 but in full juvenal plumage, has the crown and occiput mottled with 

 " tawny " and black ; the chin and throat are white ; the feathers 

 of the back and scapulars are variously patterned with transverse 

 bars of " ochraceous-tawny," " tawny-olive," " cinnamon-buff," and 

 black, with median white stripes or tips; the central tail feathers 

 are similarly barred and tipped, the pattern diminishing on lateral 

 rectrices; the underparts are dull whitish, heavily spotted or barred 

 on the breast and flanks with black, sepia, and pale dusky, darkest 

 on the chest, and more or less heavily tinged on the flanks and 

 breast with " ochraceous-buff." 



Food. — Colvin (1914) says that " during the summer months they 

 feed largely on grasshoppers, but in the fall and winter they feed 



