J^ehraslcii OrnWwloiMs' Utiion 71 



shells indicating the number of eggs in the set to have 

 been in the neighborhood of thirteen, but did not dis- 

 cover a nest with the sitting parent or with the eggs 

 yet unhatched, for the close-sitting bird would be almost 

 impossible to see in the long grass of the hollows. The 

 nests were merely places in the grass where the hen 

 had settled the plants down on the ground and laid her 

 eggs on top of the grassy mat. Even after the family 

 had left there was scarcely a depression to mark the 

 place, and the whole nest was so open and plainly to be 

 seen that only the coloration of the sitting bird would 

 conceal the situation from the would-be observer. 



Later in the summer I came across flocks of the chicks 

 grown larger, and then, instead of keeping close to earth, 

 they would fly up and scatter over the hill, looking very 

 small in comparison to the size of their mother. In 

 reality they Avere about six or seven inches in length, 

 but their flight was strong and direct although neces- 

 sarily of comparatively short duration. Still later, in 

 the latter part of August and early September, almost 

 grown, they were joined by the old males, which, until 

 then, had been off by themselves in small groups, and 

 the combined flocks, often in company with Prairie Sharp- 

 tailed Grouse, ranged the hi] Is to feed, rising with whir- 

 ring wings, when flushed, to settled again when they had 

 put the crest of a hill between themselves and the ob- 

 server. October 27-29, 1910, M. H. Swenk found them 

 common in the sandhills about the Reserve, but not so 

 abundantly as at the eastern edge of the sandhills in Custer 

 county. 



35. Pedioecctes phasiandlns canipestris Ridgway — Prairie 

 Sharp-tailed Grouse. 

 Like the Prairie Chicken, the Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse 

 nests in the hills, where I frequently found the males dur- 

 ing the summer, feeding in little flocks while the females 

 were sitting and taking care of the young. One flock of 

 the little chicks was all that I found, and that on June 18, 

 1912. The mother bird had flown with loud voiced *"cnc'- 

 cuc'-cuc'-cuc'— -" but had dropped to earth and skulked 

 rapidly over the hilltop, only to return in a moment and 

 approach me closely and then flutter with apparently 

 broken wing over the grass away from the spot where I 



