Prairie Chickens 



167 



Kumlien tells us the pinnated entered Wisconsin about 1840. The survey 

 shows that its northward progress is not yet ended. Map 14 shows five northern 

 counties invaded in 1896, 1909, 1912, and 1917, respectively. 



The decline in southern Wisconsin, of course, took place decades ago. Thus 

 has this noble bird marched into the unknown, the settler hewing the way, and 

 his sons in turn evicting the birds by too many improvements. 



The dates of decline on the acquired range, as determined during the sur- 

 vey of Wisconsin, were as follows: 



Observer and county 



Observation 



Swift, Southeast Dane County.. 

 Peters, Southeast Dane County. 



Nicholson, Brown County 



Gray, Marquette County 



Sinandle, Marquette County. 



Chamley, Iowa County 



Burg, Grant County 



Gardiner, Grant County 



Olsen, Trempealeau County 



Langenbach (Horicon), Dodge County. 

 J. N. Clark, Dunn County 



Fell off quite suddenly about 1896. Evident- 

 ly a "skipped cycle" since then. 



Fell off 1896-1900 or 1901 on Greedabeck 

 Marsh. Corroborates the above. 



Gradual decline around 1900. 



Last big crops about 1915-20. Could kill 100 

 per day before that. 



Decline since 1918. 



Good shooting till about 1900. 



Up to 1900 all the ridge prairies east of 

 Platteville offered good chicken shooting. 



The chickens played out about 1890-95. 

 Played out since 1900. 

 Last good year was 1895. 

 Sharptail declined since 1885. 



It should be noted that three of these 11 instances show a sharp and sudden 

 drop, while six others may be so construed. Do these sudden declines represent 

 the same phenomenon as the "skipped cycles" already recorded for ruffed grouse? 



I am convinced that many of them do. This conviction is based partly on im- 

 pressions received from conversations with old timers which are too long to be 

 here adduced as evidence, and partly on the fact that of a total of 20 dates of 

 decline of chickens in the region reported to me during the survey, over two- 

 thirds fall within one year of the lows of the chicken cycle, and the same propor- 

 tion fall within one year of the Wisconsin lows for all species. In other words, 

 66 per cent of the declines fall within the 3-year periods of mortality which we 

 have previously concluded accompany the trough of the cycle. Since these com- 

 prise only 33 per cent of the total elapsed years, a more than random coincidence 

 between declines and cycles is evident. 



