12 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



Hab. Prairies and open cultivated districts of the Mississippi Valley. 



"Sp. Chae. Male (No. 10,006, Tremont, Illinois; W. I. Shaw): Ground-color above ochra- 

 ceous-brown, tinged with grayish; beneath white, the feathers of the jugulum dark rusty- 

 chestnut beneath the surface. Head mostly deep buff. Upper parts much broken by broad 

 transverse spots, or irregular bars of deep black, this color predominating largely over the 

 lighter tints. Primaries and tail plain dusky ; the former with roundish spots of pale ochra- 

 ceous on outer webs, the latter very narrowly tipped with white. Lower parts with regular, 

 continuous, sharply denned 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 strine, and the whole 

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

 the shorter with only the edge black, the whole middle portion pale buff, shading into 

 deep reddish rusty next to the black. Wing, 9.00; tail, 4.50; bill, .40 deep by .50 long, from 

 nostril; tarsus, 2.10: middle toe, 1.85. Female similar, but with shorter and inconspicuous 

 cervical tufts. Young (No. 25,998, Rockford, Illinois; Blackman): Above, including tail, 

 yellowish brown; feathers with conspicuous white shaft-streaks and large blotches of deep 

 black. Outer webs of primaries with whitish spots. Top of head rusty-brown with a black 

 vertical and dusky auricular patch. Lower parts yellowish white, with irregularly defined 

 transverse, grayish brown broad bars; anteriox-ly more spotted, the jugulum tinged with 

 brown. 



"Chick (No. 25,989, Rockford, 111.). Bright lemon-buff, tinged on sides and jugulum with 

 reddish; upper parts much washed with rusty. A narrow auricular streak, blotches on the 

 vertex and occiput, a stripe across the shoulder, and blotches down the middle of the back 

 and rump, deep black." [Hist. N. Am. B.) 



To describe in a work intended especially for Illinois readers 

 the habits of the Prairie Chicken, seems almost as superfluous 

 a proceeding as "carrying coals to Newcastle;" hence we omit 

 further reference to this species than the following brief account 

 of its nesting, from 1 1 /story of North American Birds. 



"This bird nests, according to the locality in which it is met 

 with, from the beginning of April to the last of May. In Ken- 

 tucky Audubon has found their nests with eggs early in April, 

 but the average period there was the first of May. Their nests 

 he describes as somewhat carelessly formed of dry leaves and 

 grasses, interwoven in a tolerably neat manner, and always 

 very carefully placed aniong the tall grass of some large tuft in 

 the open ground of the prairies, or in barren lands at the foot 

 of a small bush." 



Genus PEDIOCiETES Bairij. 



Pedioaetes Baird, B. N. Am. 1858, 025. Type, Tetrao phasianellns Linn. 



"Gen. Char. Tail short, graduated; exclusive of the much lengthened middle part, 

 where are two feathers (perhaps tail-coverts) with parallel edges and truncated ends, half 

 the full rounded wing. Tarsi densely feathered to the toes and between their bases. Neck 

 without peculiar feathers. Culmen between nasal fossae not half the total length." 



