PRAIRIE HEN. I15 



When flushed the Pinnated Grouse always utters a 

 few clucks, and the crest on the head is frequently raised. 

 It has the habit of lifting and depressing the crest when 

 walking on the ground and when one approaches near 

 to it. This is only, however, when it has not been much 

 disturbed and is tame. At other times it crouches among 

 the grass or close to the ground, and only moves to take 

 wing. In spite of the enormous number killed every 

 year by all sort of means, the species still manages to 

 hold its own fairly well in many localities, but the inevita- 

 ble day will surely come that will bring the same fate to 

 all our wild creatures, and the Prairie Chicken, like other 

 natives of the wilderness, will remain only as a memory. 



TYMPANUCHUS AMERICANUS. 



Geographical Distribution. — Prairies of Mississippi Valley 

 from Manitoba on the northeast to Ontario, Michigan, and Ohio, 

 west to the Dakotas, Kansas, and the Indian Territory, and south 

 to Louisiana and Texas. 



Adult Male. — Upper parts, brown, barred with black and 

 buff; wing feathers, tipped with buff; a tuft of stiff, elongated 

 feathers, capable of being elevated over the head on either side 

 of the neck, black, with buff centers, frequently chestnut on the 

 inner webs; chin, throat, and cheeks, buff; the latter marked 

 with dark brown spots; a brown line from mouth, beneath the 

 eye to ear-coverts; buff stripe from maxilla to and beyond the 

 eye; under parts, white, barred with brown or blackish brown; 

 flanks, barred with blackish brown, and buff; under tail-coverts, 

 white, edged at tip with brown and margined with dark brown 

 and buff; tail, brown, darkest on median feathers, and tipped 

 with white; large sac of loose skin, capable of inflation beneath 

 the long neck feathers. Total length, about 18 inches; wing, 9; 

 tail, 4i. 



Adult Female. — Resembles the male, but is without the neck 

 sac, has the neck tufts very short or rudimentary, and the tail 

 feathers have numerous distinct bars of buff. Total length, 

 about 17I inches; wing, 8|; tail, 3f. 



