232 ' AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
time enormously abundant, and, being exceedingly 
tame at certain seasons of the year, was very readily 
destroyed. 
Throughout almost all this region the bird was resi- 
dent, though in the northern portion it regularly made 
seasonal changes of location, which, though commonly 
called migratory, hardly deserve to be so character- 
ized. On this point Mr. W. W. Cooke, in his report 
on “Bird Migration in the Mississippi Valley,” says: 
“The prairie chicken is commonly said to be a resi- 
dent bird, and so it is in a larger part of this range, 
but in Iowa a regular though local migration takes 
place. This has been mentioned by former writers, and 
in the spring of 1884 a special study was made of the 
matter. Many observers unite in testifying to the facts 
in the case, and, what is still more important, there is 
not a dissenting voice. One of the observers does not 
exaggerate when he says: ‘Prairie chickens migrate as 
regularly as the Canada goose.’ Summing up all the 
information received, the facts of the case are as 
follows: In November and December large flocks of 
prairie chickens come from northern Iowa and southern 
Minnesota to settle for the winter in northern Missouri 
and southern Iowa. This migration varies in bulk with 
the severity of the winter. 
“During an early cold snap immense flocks come 
from the northern prairies to southern Iowa, while in 
mild, open winters the migration is much less pro- 
nounced. During a cold, wet spring the northward 
movement in March and April is largely arrested on 
