Grouse and Quails. 



Oi'der, Gallinae. 

 Family, Tetraonidae. 



Family Characteristics: These are the wild types of our do- 

 mestic chicken. They have heavy, thick breasts, and short wings 

 used rapidly in flight. Their breeding habits are similar to those of 

 domestic fowl. They are most valuable game birds for food. Great 

 destroyers of hoppers and bugs. 



305. PRAIRIE CHICKEN. Tympanuchus Americanus. A foot 

 and a half long. Heavy breast. Light brown above. Heavily barred 

 with black. Dull white below barred with brown. Small bunches of 

 large feathers hang from either side of the neck of the male bird. 

 Has air-sacs on the sides of throat. The favorite game bird of the 

 west. 



308b. SHARP TAILED GROUSE. Pedioecetes pJiasianellus 

 campestris. Generally a little smaller and lighter than the prairie 

 chicken. Dull whitish below. Has no extra large feathers on neck 

 as the prairie chicken has. In other respects very similar. 



309. SAGE HEN. Centrocereus urophasianus. About two feet 

 long. Mottled gray above barred with brown and black, yellow sacs 

 on sides of throat. Larger than others of its kind. Most common in 

 Wyoming and west of the Missouri River. Flesh tastes strongly of 

 wild sage except when very young. Color drab, much mixed and 

 barred. 



289. BOB WHITE. Colinus Virginianus. About ten inches long. 

 Male has white throat, female has yellow throat. Buff and brown 

 above and below with more or less black markings above. Calls his 

 name. 



QUAIL or BOB WHITE. 



Bob white is as trim a bird as you will see in a Sabbath 

 day's journey or even in a month of Sundays. It is too bad for 

 him that he is so plump and still worse that he is so delicate a 

 morsel. As a matter of fact, he is only a morsel at best. Surely 

 quails must breed very fast to perpetuate themselves for there is 



