No. 88.] BIRD NAMES. 135 



transversely with dark brown varying to blackish and light tan 

 color, the latter tint fading to white here arid there. Under 

 parts and sides regularly marked white and brown, in well-de- 

 fined bars ; throat buff. Legs covered to the toes with hairy 

 feathers of drabbish tint, but more sparingly than in No. 39; 

 the toes yellow brown. 



Female. Similar to male, though with shorter, insignificant 

 neck-tufts. 



Length seventeen to eighteen inches; extent about twenty- 

 eight inches. 



This is the common pinnated grouse of Western prairies (and 

 Eastern markets), regarded until very recently as identical with 

 our once common Eastern variety which still exists upon Martha's 

 Vineyard, Mass. Mr. Brewster, in the Auk of January, 1885, 

 showed us that our Eastern bird (now known as Tympanuchus 

 Gup'ido) differs from the above-described AVestern variety, in be- 

 ing smaller, more reddish brown above, less white below, shorter 

 legged, neck-tuft feathers " narrower and acutely instead of ob- 

 tusely lance pointed;" the neck-tufts having also but four or 

 five, instead of from seven to ten rigid feathers. Again, that our 

 Eastern bird is " a looodland species, inhabiting scrubby tracts 

 of oak and pine." This discovery — exceedingly interesting to 

 scientists — is not important to gunners, the latter having practi- 

 cally nothing to do with the remaining handful of Eastern birds. 

 " It is not unlikely," writes Mr. Brewster, " that the two forms 

 intergraded over such intermediate ground as Western Pennsyl- 

 vania and Eastern Ohio and Kentucky." How far to the east 

 or west this intergradation extended it is, of course, impossible 

 to tell. The names by which the two varieties have been known 

 are as follows, no satisfactory separation being possible under 

 the circumstances.* 



PINNATED GROUSE: PRAIRIE HEN: PRAIRIE CHICKEN: (see 

 ]X"o. 39) : HEATH HEN (see No. 40), this being an early Eastern 



* There is still another pinnated-grouse variety, found in the Southwest, 

 and known in tlie books as Tympanuchus palUdicinctus, also as Texas Prairie 

 Hen, Lesser Prairie Hen, and Pale Pinnated Grouse. 



