26 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



boom, which we may have heard when two miles 

 distant. At other times, with a low cackle, he 

 springs suddenly into the air, as though quite un- 

 able to control himself, and finally he comes 

 within striking distance of a rival who has been 

 giving a similar exhibition. Then, with much 

 clashing of wings, a fight ensues which often 

 strews the nearby grass with feathers. These 

 tournaments of display and combat are doubtless 

 designed to arouse the attention of the females, 

 but they also occur when only males are present. 

 Within an hour or two after sunrise, the time 

 varying with the ardor of the birds, the com- 

 petition is over for the day and the rivals feed 

 peacefully together, until they enter the lists the 

 following morning." 



The food habits of the Prairie Grouse are 

 well known. They eat many insects, especially 

 grasshoppers, from May to October, and are 

 valuable aids to the farmer for this reason. In 

 the fall and winter the food of the Prairie 

 Grouse is mainly vegetable — fruit, leaves, flowers, 

 shoots, seeds, and grain. Dr. Judd says : " Like 

 the Bob-white and the Rulifed Grouse, the 



Prairie Grouse is fond of rose-hips, and the 

 abundant roses of the prairie yield ii.oi per 

 cent, of its food." In Kansas and many other 

 States the wild sunflowers, goldenrod, and other 

 natural foods were tremendously abundant, but 

 throughout most of the range of the Grouse 

 these foods have been destroyed absolutely. It 

 would pay to restore some prairie grass, wild 

 roses, sunflowers, and other covers and food 

 which are essential to the bird's existence. No 

 farmer or sportsman can be expected to give the 

 land, time, labor, and money needed to save the 

 Grouse simi)ly as a bait for trespassers. This 

 Grouse is fond of the stubble as a feeding 

 ground and it can be made profitably abundant 

 on many farms, but it must have winter foods 

 and covers, and it must be protected from its 

 enemies if any shooting is to be done; otherwise 

 it will become extinct. 



The Lesser Prairie Chicken ( Tympanuchus 

 pallidicinctiis) occurs on the Great Plains, from 

 Kansas south to west-central Texas ; its plum- 

 age is similar to that of the Prairie Chicken but 

 paler. 



HEATH HEN 

 Tympanuchus cupido (Linncciis) 



A. O. U. Number 306 



Other Name. — Eastern Pinnated Grouse. 



General Description. — Length, 17 inches. Color 

 above, rusty-brown ; below, rusty-white. Tarsus, lightly 

 feathered to the toes; a tuft of less than ten stiflf, 

 pointed feathers on each side of the neck, overlying a 

 naked area which is capable of being inflated to the size 

 of a small orange; tail, short with eighteen stifT 

 feathers. 



Plumage. — .\dults : Ground color above, rusty- 

 brown ; shoulders with white tips to the feathers ; every- 

 where barred with even broad markings of blackish- 

 brown, much narrower on neck and tending to spots 



on crown ; below, rusty white, traversely barred with 

 numerous reddish-brown bars, these darker bars much 

 in excess of lighter ones ; neck-tufts black. Sexes gen- 

 erally alike, but the female is sometimes darker, with 

 bars beneath dull black and tail dark brown with many 

 fine irregular rusty bars. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: On ground; a depression, 

 lined with grass, weed stems, and leaves. Eggs: 6 to 

 12, creamy to yellowish-green, unspotted. 



Distribution. — Island of Marthas Vineyard, Mas- 

 sachusetts ; formerly in suitable portions of New Eng- 

 land, New York, and the Middle States. 



The Heath Hen possibly was once a smaller 

 eastern race of the Prairie Chicken, but, all con- 

 necting links having been destroyed, it now 

 stands as a distinct species, having been set apart 

 by William Brewster (Auk, Jan., 1885). No 

 one knows how much ground this bird for- 

 merly occupied, but now it is confined to the 

 island of Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts, 

 where the State Commissioners of Fisheries and 

 Game are trying to save it from extinction. It is 

 believed to have occupied formerly all suitable 



country along the Atlantic seaboard from Massa- 

 chusetts to Virginia, but no one has any data 

 regarding its western limit. Audubon and Wil- 

 son believed it to be identical with the Grouse 

 that inhabited the barrens of Kentucky in their 

 day, but possibly it did not range west of the 

 Appalachians. It is recorded in numbers in the 

 Connecticut valley in Massachusetts, but no 

 records of its existence farther west in that State 

 have been found. 



It was numerous once in suitable localities 



