Ihilleii)! No. 2 



75 



the early morning hours, when it could be seen walking about the yard 

 in quest of them. For night shelter it resorted to a wood-pile in a corner 

 of the lot. 



September 28, i8gi, as my record reads, a rather unexpected oc- 

 currence took place on our premises here at Glen Ellyn. It was the 

 advent of a young-of-the-year Prairie Chicken, Tympatiuchus a?nerica- 

 fius, among the poultry, feeding with and following the chickens about 

 the yard, although chanticleer and his flock did not look with marked 

 favor on the presence of this new-comer, pecking and chasing it at every 

 opportunity. At one time it followed several of the half-grown young 

 into the front street, feeding with them among the horse-droppings and 

 wholly unmindful of passing wagons and carriages. On other occasions 

 when alone, it would fly into the top of a small mountain ash tree on our 

 place and feed on the berries. The bird's weight upon the smaller 

 branches would shake much of this fruit to the ground, but, having sat- 

 isfied itself with that on the tree, it would fly down and clean up this 

 fallen fruit. This it did several times. At roosting time it started to 

 follow the poultry to their quarters and probably would have done so had 

 the younger chickens been more quiet. But in selecting their positions 

 for the night the noise and confusion made by them at that jostling age 

 was altogether too much for our modest visitor, who, viewing the situa- 

 tion at a distance for a time, decided to take wing and return to the 

 fields. We never saw it again. Although this immature example of the 

 Prairie Hen appeared to be in most respects unmindful of the treacher- 

 ous ways of man, never-the-less, its inherited fear of the murderous gun 

 was quite fully demonstrated I think. 



While watching the chickens going to roost, a young man of the neigh- 

 borhood passed our place with a gun upon his shoulder. The hunter's 

 appearance almost paralized our now timid bird which stood motionless 

 assuming an attitude almost upright, like a stake, but dropped back into 

 the normal position just as soon as the apparent danger had passed. In 

 conclusion, it may be well enough to add that our flock of poultry for 

 that season was composed chiefly of Plymouth Rocks, that fact alone 

 accounting, perhaps, for the successful decoying of this wild representa- 

 tive of the fields among them, the close resemblance between them being 

 quite marked, and certainly very deceptive in the case of half-grown 

 pullets. 



Benj. T. CiAULT, Gh'n Ellyu, III. 



