134 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
keep much about cultivated lands, and enter fields prob- 
ably more for the insects they may be able to find there 
than with the view of obtaining grain. The flesh of the 
Prairie Sharp-tail is like its congeners’, light-colored when 
the bird is young but dark in the adult, and if you are not 
compelled by stress of circumstances to eat it three times 
a day, as I have been, is very palatable. It is a noble 
bird, game in the fullest and truest sense of the word, 
and presents a beautiful sight as it walks easily and grace- 
fully over the prairie, raising at intervals its lengthened 
crest, and looking back at its observer, with its clear 
liquid eyes betokening atrust and confidence that is,alas! 
too often misplaced. The Sharp-tailed and the Pinnated 
Grouse often meet on the limits of their dispersion, but 
rarely mingle together, for they are deadly enemies and 
engage in desperate battles; the habits and dispositions 
of the birds causing them to lead different lives and seek 
dissimilar habitats. To my mind the Sharp-tail is the 
finer and handsomer bird. 
PEDIGCETES “PHASTANELLUS CAMPESTASS. 
Geographical Distribution.—Prairies east of Rocky Moun- 
tains from Montana to New Mexico, and from Wisconsin and 
Illinois to Colorado. 
Adult Male.—Entire upper parts, buff, ochraceous upon back 
and scapulars, blotched and barred with black; scapulars 
streaked with white, and large white spots on tips of wing-cov- 
erts; primaries, dark brown, spotted with white on outer webs; 
spot in front of eye, sides of face and throat, light buff, with a 
cluster of brown spots on the cheeks; under parts, white, with 
lengthened V-shaped brown lines on each feather, most numer- 
ous on breast, where they are the predominant color; middle of 
abdomen and under tail-coverts, white; central tail feathers ex- 
tend beyond the rest, and are barred with black and ochraceous; 
legs, brownish white: maxilla, black, mandible, horn color at 
