Annotated List of Sac County, Iowa 157 



them drying the meat of the breasts for summer use. One albino 

 prairie chicken attained quite a local reputation in the southern 

 half of the county because it could never be trapped, and all the 

 hunters made it a point to spare the " White Chicken." This 

 period continued until about 1895, by which time the county be- 

 came so thickly settled that only a few prairie chickens could find 

 places to nest. From this time on they have been common in win- 

 ter, coming in from the Dakotas or Minnesota, wintering in the 

 stalk fields or about the fields of shocked fodder, and in the spring 

 returning whence they came to nest. This condition continues at 

 present, with the exception of a few remaining to breed. From 

 1900 to 1913 I have no knowledge, nor can I find any record of a 

 prairie chicken nesting in Sac county. Mr. Lee reported one pair 

 nesting in the northern part of the county in 1913 and several 

 pairs in 1914. In 1915 one pair nested a few miles from Wall lake. 

 I saw the brood in July when the young were about the size of 

 bob-whites. 



Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse. (Pcdicccetes iJliasianellus campes- 

 tris). Mr. Hugh Cory said that he trapped about one hundred of 

 these birds in the winter of 1855-56. He stated that he saw them 

 last in the 1850's, and that they were much rarer than prairie 

 chickens. Mr. Tiberghien also reported them rare, with the last 

 seen in 1858. 



Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo sUvestris) . Both Mr. Cory 

 and Mr. Tiberghien reported three killed at Grant City in 1854. 

 This is the only record for the county. 



Passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) . Mr. Tiberghien said 

 that he had seen flocks of five hundred in buckwheat fields in the 

 fall. The last one he shot was in September, 1879. My father saw 

 one near the " Goosepond " in the summer of 1875, and a flock 

 of about twenty nested in the young grove about the home place 

 one mile north of Wall lake one spring between 1880 and 1885. 



Mourning Dove {Zenaidxira macroiira carolinensis). Common to 

 abundant at times. The early settlers reported it as present at 

 first settlement, but as much rarer than now. Since doves are 

 very wisely protected at all times by state law they also are increas- 

 ing in numbers. An occasional one spends the winter here. In 

 the winter of 1907-08 a flock which numbered twenty on December 

 22nd were tempted to winter by an abundant supply of shelled 

 popcorn, which was scattered on the ground in a thirty-acre field 

 which had been husked with a corn picking machine. About the 

 middle of January snow covered up most of the food supply and 

 on February 4th only three doves were left. I saw one of these 

 start south one evening about sunset. Zero temperatures suc- 

 ceeded, yet in spite of the cold one dove remained about the farm 



