PRAIRIE HEN. II5 
When flushed the Pinnated Grouse always utters a 
few clucks, and the crest on the head is frequently raised. 
It has the habit of lifting and depressing the crest when 
walking on the ground and when one approaches near 
to it. This is only, however, when it has not been much 
disturbed and is tame. At other times it crouches among 
the grass or close to the ground, and only moves to take 
wing. In spite of the enormous number killed every 
year by all sort of means, the species still manages to 
hold its own fairly well in many localities, but the inevita- 
ble day will surely come that will bring the same fate to 
all our wild creatures, and the Prairie Chicken, like other 
natives of the wilderness, will remain only as a memory. 
TYMPANUCHUS AMERICANUS. 
Geographical Distribution.—Prairies of Mississippi Valley 
from Manitoba on the northeast to Ontario, Michigan, and Ohio, 
west to the Dakotas, Kansas, and the Indian Territory, and south 
to Louisiana and Texas. 
Adult Male.—Upper parts, brown, barred with black and 
buff; wing feathers, tipped with buff; a tuft of stiff, elongated 
feathers, capable of being elevated over the head on either side 
of the neck, black, with buff centers, frequently chestnut on the 
inner webs; chin, throat, and cheeks, buff; the latter marked 
with dark brown spots; a brown line from mouth, beneath the 
eye to ear-coverts; buff stripe from maxilla to and beyond the 
eye; under parts, white, barred with brown or blackish brown; 
flanks, barred with blackish brown, and buff; under tail-coverts, 
white, edged at tip with brown and margined with dark brown 
and buff; tail, brown, darkest on median feathers, and tipped 
with white; large sac of loose skin, capable of inflation beneath 
the long neck feathers. Total length, about 18 inches; wing, 9; 
tail, 44. 
Adult Female.—Resembles the male, but is without the neck 
sac, has the neck tufts very short or rudimentary, and the tail 
feathers have numerous distinct bars of buff. Total length, 
about 174 inches; wing, 8; tail, 33. 
