264 BULLETIN 162, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Referring to its history, Simmons writes: 



Formerly abundant on the open prairies, these wonderful game-fowl became 

 extirpated in the Austin Region through two agencies ; civilization and hunting. 

 They disappeared rapidly as the country was settled up and as cultivated fields 

 took the place of the extensive, wild, unfenced prairies; and hunters quickly 

 killed the few remaining birds. 



Its courtship performances, nesting habits, eggs, plumages, and 

 molts are all similar to those of the common prairie chicken. 



Eggs. — The eggs are indistinguishable from those of the common 

 prairie chicken. The measurements of 27 eggs average 42.3 by 31.5 

 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 44.9 by 32, 

 42.4 by 33.5, 38.8 by 28.9, and 39.8 by 28.6 millimeters. 



Food. — Simmons (1925) says that it 



sometimes flies to treetops to inspect corn fields before alighting in them to 

 feed ; frequently feeds in the open in plain sight of observers several hundred 

 yards away. During early breeding season, feeds largely on insects, such as 

 grasshoppers, crickets, potato bugs, and other beetles; in fall and winter, tops 

 and seeds of leguminous plants, tender buds and green leaves of late winter, 

 fruits, berries, and waste grain of stubble and corn fields. 



Behavior. — Simmons says that it is 



observed singly and in pairs in spring ; in fall and winter, roamed about in 

 flocks of from 10 to 12 up to a 100 or more, moving about over the prairies and 

 grain fields, generally keeping among bushes and tall grass inland, the open 

 prairies and grassy knolls along the coast. Stately of bearing, but otherwise 

 very much like the domestic fowl in its actions. In spring, a " scratching 

 ground " or smooth, open courtship ground is selected, where pairing takes 

 place. 



Voice. — The same observer describes the notes as " nondescript 

 calls ; strange cackles, with a muffled booming love-call, uck-ah-umb- 

 boo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo; and a loud beating boom-ah-boom, perhaps pro- 

 duced by a beating of the wings; when alarmed, a rapidly repeated 

 cluk-cluk-cluk-cluk ; female, when flushed, utters a low kuk-kuk-kuk- 

 kuk-kuk-7euk-kuk-kuk." 



TYMPANUCHUS CUPIDO CUPIDO (Linnaeus) 

 HEATH HEN 



Contributed by Alfred Otto Gross 

 HABITS 



The heath hen and the prairie chicken are so closely related that 

 they are now considered as geographical races and not as distinct 

 species. In 1885 William Brewster (1885a) called our attention to 

 differences between the pinnated grouse of Marthas Vineyard (heath 

 hen) and the western pinnated grouse, or prairie chicken. He named 



