THE PINNATED GROUSE. 65 



Eggs. — Eleven to fourteen in number, or even more. Ground- 

 colour pale buff, olive-buff, or vinaceous, with very small, 

 sometimes obsolete, dots of chestnut-brown. 



II. THE HEATH HEN. TYMPANUCHUS CUPIDO. 



Tetrno ciipido, Linn. S. N. i. p. 274 (1766). 

 Cnpidonia cupido^ Brewst. Auk. ii. p. 82 (1885). 

 Tyjfipa?mchus cupido, Ridgw. P. U. S. Nat. Mus. viii. p. 355 



(1885); Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. B. p. 93 (1892); 



Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 77 (1893). 



Adult Male.— Similar to the foregoing species, but with fewer 

 feathers in the neck tufts ; the longer ones lanceolate and pointed. 



Adult Female. — Resembles the female of T. americanus. 



This species is a smaller form, very closely allied to the 

 Prairie Hen, but the male may apparently be distinguished by 

 the above-mentioned characters. 



Range. — Island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. It was 

 formerly also found in Eastern Massachusetts, Connecticut, 

 Long Island, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, according to 

 American records, but is now extinct in these localities. 



Habits. — The habits of this bird are somewhat different from 

 those of its western ally, for it is a woodland species, only met 

 with in the scrubby tracts of oak, and feeding largely on acorns, 

 though it may occasionally be seen in the open picking up 

 grain and clover-leaves. The area inhabited by the remaining 

 colony of these birds covers about forty square miles, and over 

 this extremely limited range they are comparatively numerous, 

 being now strictly protected by law. 



in. THE LESSER PRAIRIE HEN. TYMPANUCHUS 

 PALLIDICINCTUS. 



Cupidonia aipido, var. pallidicinctus, Ridgw. in Baird, Brewer, 

 & Ridgw. N. Amer. B. iii. p. 446 (1874), 



Q F 



