174 Game Survey of the North Central States 



the trapped birds ran heavily to males, indicating that either the males trapped 

 easier or that the females had gone South. 



Gross has pointed out that W. W. Cooke definitely accepted the differential 

 migration of the sexes. Cooke said: 



"The most remarkable feature of this movement is found in the sex of the 

 migrants. It is the females that migrate, leaving the males to brave the winter's 

 cold." 



Winter migrations were apparently so regular and reliable that hunters suc- 

 cessfully intercepted the flights at certain stopping points. Edward Runge, a 

 former market hunter, told me some 20 years ago that it was once customary for 

 chicken hunters to go every fall to North Hill Bluff on the outskirts of Burling- 

 ton, Iowa, opposite Henderson County, Illinois. This bluff projects into the 

 Mississippi River in such a way as to catch any southward flight of birds along 

 the river bottoms. Runge said that chickens flying southward along the bottoms 

 would be unable to clear North Hill easily, and would accordingly alight, where 

 they fell easy prey to hunters. A considerable number were killed there each fall 

 by hunters who arrived at the proper dates. Runge never told me the month in 

 which this annual flight took place. 



Winter migrations were possibly not confined to pinnated. Orrin Sutherland, 

 born in Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin, in 1849, says that in the 50s: 



". . . great flights of grouse (sharptails) arrived late in fall when the 

 snow came, in flocks of 100 to 150, flying about 15 rods high. I did not see them 

 stop to rest. In the spring they went back but not in continuous flights ; they just 

 strung back." 



Present Winter Migrations. Migrations today seem to be less regular 

 and less extensive. Possibly decreased food competition, due to shrunken popula- 

 tions, has something to do with it, or possibly the southern prairies are too bare 

 to be preferable to northern snow. 



W. W. Cooke associates the lessened tendency to migrate, already visible in 

 1888, with the widespread introduction of corn. He quotes J. A. Spurrell as 

 observing that after 1880 "corn became a common crop (in Sac County, Iowa) 

 and birds wintered as well as nested abundantly," whereas previously there had 

 been a marked migration (see Gross, 1930) . 



Some movement, however, still takes place. Northern Iowa has winter 

 chickens as far south as Ames, but no breeding birds. 



Forest County, Wisconsin, has summer but no winter chickens, while Mani- 

 towoc County, 125 miles to the south, has winter but no summer birds. Parts 

 of Winnebago County also have winter chickens only. 



William Fairchild, former keeper of Chambers Island in Green Bay, off 

 the shore of Door County, Wisconsin, saw two chickens arrive on the island, 

 apparently from the Marinette County shore, in April, 1927. (Minimum distance 

 7 miles) . They stayed several weeks and then flew east to Door County proper. 



