THE PRAIRIE HEN 



That one should have to go to central Nebraska for Prai- 

 rie Hens is impressive evidence of the rapid decrease of this 

 fine bird. As a boy, in the early seventies, I recall the glut of 

 these Grouse in the butcher shops, my first ornithological 

 collection, indeed, being composed largely of wings of Prai- 

 rie Hens, obtained with the cook's co-operation. But the 

 farmer in the spring, and the market-hunter in the fall, have 

 given the bird no opportunity to reproduce or time to rest, 

 and it is now either extirpated or rare over most of the re- 

 gion in which it was formerly abundant. 



When, therefore, I made inquiry of various correspond- 

 ents concerning a place where I might count on finding Prai- 

 rie Hens in numbers, I was advised to go to the sand-hills of 

 Nebraska. In this comparatively arid region, unfit for agri- 

 culture except in the watered bottom-lands, the bird proved 

 to be abundant and here, doubtless, it will make its last 

 stand. 



Nebraska is a connecting link between the east and the 

 west. Deciduous woods border the streams which flow 

 through the prairies of its eastern portion ; conifers grow on 

 the mountains which penetrate the plains of its northwest- 

 ern portion. 



The influence of such striking changes in physiography 

 and forest growth is markedly observable in the distribution 

 of birds in Nebraska. 



The eastern Wild Turkey, for example, was once com- 

 mon in the wooded bottom-lands of eastern Nebraska, while 

 the Sage Hen is found on the sage plains of its western bor- 

 der. So, too, among many similar cases, the Whip-poor- 

 will, Chimney Swift, Phoebe, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and 

 Scarlet Tanager, nest commonly in eastern Nebraska, while 



