280 BULLETIN 162, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



been brought about in part by some hereditary influence, but it is 

 certain that this condition was aggravated by the fires that ravaged 

 the island during the breeding season. At such times the females 

 were destroyed on the nests, whereas the males escaped the con- 

 flagration. Furthermore, a female with young was subject to more 

 danger of being killed than the male, which never cared for the 

 young. 



Other factors that played their part were the excessive interbreed- 

 ing, which was destined to occur after the heath hen was restricted 

 in range and to exceedingly small numbers of individuals. It was 

 also found upon examination of dissected specimens that many of 

 the birds were sterile. 



TYMPANUCHUS PALLIDICINCTUS (Ridgway) 

 LESSER PRAIRIE CHICKEN 



HABITS 



Comparatively little seems to be known and still less has been pub- 

 lished on the habits and distribution of the small, light-colored, lesser 

 prairie chicken, which is found in the Upper Sonoran Zone of the 

 Great Plains from Kansas and Colorado to central Texas and eastern 

 New Mexico. It has disappeared from many sections where it was 

 once abundant; too much grazing on, and extensive cultivation of, the 

 grassy plains have driven it out. But it is still to be found in fair 

 numbers in its restricted range, where it is protected, or not disturbed. 



We are greatly indebted to Walter Colvin for the information that 

 follows regarding this fine bird, which I have gathered from his 

 published article (1914) and from the full notes and photographs he 

 has sent to me. Writing of its distribution and haunts in 1914, he 

 says: 



The natural habitat of this beautiful grouse is far remote from the habitat 

 of its allied cousin, the heath hen, and still less remote from its nearer cousin, 

 the common prairie heu of the Middle States. Its present confine is the 

 southwestern counties in Kansas, extending west from Meade, through Seward, 

 Stevens, and Morton and north into Stanton, Grant, and Haskell counties, cross- 

 ing the line into Colorado some fifty miles, extending south through Beaver, 

 Texas, and Cimarron counties of Oklahoma, into the panhandle of Texas, but 

 how far south and east I haven't sufficient data at hand to determine, although 

 I believe it is safe to assert that they do not extend farther south into Texas 

 than two degrees by air line. In northwestern Oklahoma I have seen the 

 chickens within a few miles of the New Mexico line. 



Formerly this variety of chickens was common in Woodward County, Okla- 

 homa, and Captain Bendire, in his Life Histories, mentions securing their eggs 

 near Fort Cobb, Indian Territory, in 1S70. At that time reliable information 

 goes to show that they were far more plentiful south of the great Indian high- 

 way than north. The pan-handle is a typical bunch-grass country, and during 

 the early eighties a great prairie fire broke out in its southern extremity, sweep- 



