130 GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 



tail short, rounded; tarsus scantily feathered to toes; toes extensively 

 webbed at base. 



KEY TO SPECIES OF TYMPANUCHUS. 



1. Bars of back and rump single, broad and solid black. 



2. Larger americanus, p. 130. 



2'. Smaller. Coast of Texas attwateri, p. 131. 



1'. Bars of back and rump treble, a brown bar inclosed between two nar- 

 row black bars pallidicinctus, p. 131. 



305. Tympanuchus americanus (Eeich.). PRAIRIE HEN. 



Adult male. Upper parts yellowish brown and white, crossed by single 

 black bars ; under parts white, barred with brown ; head deep buff except 



for blackish brown stripes and 

 blotches ; neck with tufts above 

 inflatable air sac, feathers of 

 tufts 2.50 or more in length 

 with broad rounded tips. 

 Adult female: similar, but 



with neck tufts rudimentary. 



204. Young: upper parts light 



brownish, feathers with con- 

 spicuous white mesial streaks and large black blotches. Male: length 

 18-19, wing 8.60-9.40, tail 4.00-4.30. Female: length 17.50, wing 8.65, 

 tail 3.80. 



Distribution. Prairies of the Mississippi valley from Manitoba south 

 to Texas and Louisiana, and west to Colorado, with a general tendency 

 toward extension of range westward and contraction eastward. Migrates 

 locally north and south. 



Nest. A slight excavation in the ground among grass and weeds on 

 open prairie, sometimes lined with matted grass and a few feathers. Eggs: 

 usually 11 to 14, cream, olive, or buffy, sometimes slightly specked with 

 darker. 



Food. Grasshoppers, potato bugs, and various other beetles and in- 

 sects, besides berries, grain, small seeds, green leaves, and buds. 



The few scared, hunted prairie chickens that remain scattered here 

 and there over our great middle prairies are but a poor remnant of 

 the abundant flocks that only a few years back feasted through the 

 summer on grasshoppers and boomed loudly in spring from every 

 lonely hilltop and wide expanse of open country. Perhaps no bird 

 offers such tempting sport to hunters as these quick but straight- 

 flying grouse of the open country, ranging as they do in flocks of 

 ten or twelve, lying close for the dogs, scattering as they fly, and 

 lighting again on all sides to be worked up and shot by ones and 

 twos. When besides their character as game birds their goodly size 

 and delicious flavor are considered, it seems little wonder that they 

 have been rapidly destroyed. In places they are still fairly common, 

 and by wise protection could no doubt be kept from extermination. 



Through the summer months they are quiet birds, nesting in the 

 grass and keeping their young well out of sight in grainfields or 





