PRAIRIE CHICKENS-PINNATED GROUSE. 



BY WILLIAM BRUCE LEFFINGWELL, 

 Author of " Wild Fowl Shooting." 



V HROUGHOUT the Western States, where 

 waving fields of corn and golden yellow 

 grain mark in checkered squares the varie- 

 gated landscape, where oceans of prairie 

 grass, rippling streams, placid ponds, and 

 tiny forests abound, there is the home of 

 the prairie chicken; 'tis there they live, 

 breed, and rear their young. There are no 

 other birds that have caused youthful 

 hearts to bound in such exciting rapidity 

 as these. The village youth knows them well, for their love- 

 calls, in the spring-time, when the grass peeps out through 

 the brown earth, and the glad sunshine is nursing into 

 animated life all vegetable matter, fioat in early morn o'er 

 the dewy fields and into the open window of the house, 

 where, lying in bed, prone to sleep, yet knowing he should 

 arise, the yawning boy hearkens, and the musical ' ' boo- 

 woo-woo" reaches his listening ears, while, in imagina- 

 tion, he sees his serenader promenading the green sward, 

 surrounded by his attentive consorts, naively admiring 

 the lofty manner of their lordly spouse, who treads with 

 proud disdain the grass, while, with wings curved down 

 scraping the ground, tail erect, in fan -like shape, he bows 

 his neck and struts about as if he knew the admiration 

 he was causing. A speckled beauty he is, in his mottled 

 dress, and as he fills his sacs with air, the tan skin swells 



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