THE AUK: 



A Q.UARTERLY JOURNAL OF 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



VOL. XII. April, 1895. no. 2. 



A REMARKABLE PLUMAGE OF THE PRAIRIE HEN 

 ( TYMPA MUCH US AMERICANUS ) . 



BY WILLIAM HREWSTER. 



Plate 11. 



The Prairie Hen figured in tliis number of 'The Auk' is one 

 of four specimens known to me which possess the same remarkable 

 coloring to a greater or less degree. Of these specimens one 

 (the bird which furnished the subject for the plate) is preserved 

 in the American Museum of Natural History of New York, two 

 are in the Green Smith collection of the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology at Cambridge, and the fourth is in my own collec- 

 tion. 



Three of these birds show but little variation with respect to 

 the depth and extent of the reddish brown or chestnut coloring. 

 In the specimen represented by the plate, as well as in both of 

 the Green Smith birds, the upper parts are strongly suffused with 

 reddish brown, while most of the lower parts are clear, plain, 

 reddish or rusty chestnut, the usual blackish, transverse bars 

 being nearly or quite wanting save on the sides. My bird, of 

 which a detailed description has already appeared (Bull. N. O. C, 



