Prairie Chickens 



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TABLE 31. Budding by pinnated grouse 



This does not prove, of course, that the pinnated can subsist exclusively on 

 buds for an indefinite period. An adequate chicken study should include the 

 determination of under what conditions and on what plants each of the two 

 species buds, and to what extent and for how long the crop contents show buds 

 as a sole food. Controlled experimentation should also be conducted to get a 

 final answer to this question, since buds constitute the one unshakable foundation 

 of the northern game bird crop. 



With such information, managers of farms and forests could then intelli- 

 gently provide budding facilities and other winter feeding facilities. 



Yards, Packs, and Roosting Habits. Wm. Dadant, of Hamilton, Illi- 

 nois, was told by his father that in 1863 on his farm in Adams County great num- 

 bers of prairie chickens flew into the timber to roost in winter, bending the 

 brandies of the trees with their weight. He was specific in stating that this was 

 for roosting, not budding, purposes. 

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