70 LLOYD S NATURAL HISTORY. 



Adult Male and Female. — Distinguished from the northern form, 

 P. phasianellus, by their smaller size, and by having the general 

 colour above lighter, the rufous-buff and white markings pre- 

 dominating over the black ; the feathers on the breast white, 

 each with a concentric sub-marginal black band. Male mea- 

 sures ■ Total length, 15 inches ; wing, 81 ; tail, 5 ; tarsus, 17. 

 Female somewhat smaller. 



Eange. — Plains of the United States ; extending north to 

 Manitoba, east to Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, south to 

 New Mexico, and west from Northern California west of the 

 Rocky Mountains to Fort Yukon, Alaska. 



Capt. Bendire publishes some interesting notes by Mr. 

 Thompson on the habits of the Prairie Chicken, as it is com- 

 monly called, from which the following extract is taken : "After 

 the disappearance of the snow, and the coming of warmer 

 weather, the Chickens meet every morning at grey dawn in com- 

 panies of from six to twenty, on some selected hillock or knoll, 

 and indulge in what is called 'the dance.' This performance I 

 have often watched, and it presents the most amusing spectacle I 

 have yet witnessed in bird-life. At first the birds may be seen 

 standing about in ordinary attitudes, when suddenly one of 

 them lowers its head, spreads out its wings nearly horizontally 

 and its tail perpendicularly, distends its air-sacs and erects its 

 feathers, then rushes across the ' floor/ taking the shortest of 

 steps, but stamping its feet so hard and rapidly, that the sound 

 is like that of a kettledrum ; at the same time it utters a sort 

 of bubbling crow, which seems to come from the air-sacs, beats 

 the air with its wings and vibrates its tail, so that it produces 

 a loud, rustling noise, and thus contrives at once to make as 

 extraordinary a spectacle of itself as possible. As soon as one 

 commences, all join in, rattling, stamping, drumming, crowing, 

 and dancing together furiously ; louder and louder the noise, 

 faster and faster the dance becomes, until at last, as they madly 

 whirl about, the birds leap over each other in their excitement. 

 After a brief spell the energy of the dancers begins to abate, 



