PRAIRIE HEN ; PRAIRIE CHICKEN ; PINNATED GROUSE. 145 



as somewhat carelessly formed of dry leaves and grasses, 

 interwoven in a tolerably neat manner, and always very 

 carefully placed among the tail grass of some large tuft in 

 the open ground of the prairies, or, in barren lands, at the 

 foot of a small bush. The eggs are said to be from eight 

 to twelve in number, never more ; they are larger and 

 more spherical than those of the common umbellus, and are 

 of a darker shade. The female sits upon them about 

 twenty days, and as soon as the young can extricate them- 

 selves from the shell the mother leads them away, the male 

 having previously left her. Early in the Fall the various 

 broods begin again to associate together, and at the ap- 

 proach of Winter it is not uncommon to see them in flocks 

 of several hundred individuals. The young broods, when 

 come upon suddenly and taken by surprise, instantly scat- 

 ter and squat close to the ground, so that, without a dog, 

 it is impossible to find them. The mother gives a single 

 loud chuck as a signal of danger, and the young birds rise 

 an the wing and fly a few yards in different directions, and 

 then keep themselves perfectly still and quiet until the 

 mother recalls them by a signal indicating that the peril 

 has passed. In the meanwhile she resorts to various de- 

 vices to .draw the intruder away from the place. This 

 Grouse raises but a single brood in a season ; and if the 

 first laying has been destroyed or taken, the female seeks 

 out her mate, makes another nest, and produces another 

 set of eggs. These are usually smaller in size and less in 

 number than those of her first laying. The Pinnated 

 Grouse is said to be easily tamed, and may be readily do- 

 mesticated, though I do not know that the experiment ha8 

 been thoroughly tried. Mr. Audubon once kept sixty of 

 them in a garden near Henderson, Ky. Within a week 

 they became tame enough to allow him to approach them 

 without being frightened. He supplied them with abun- 

 dance of corn and other food. In the course of the Winter 

 they became so gentle as to feed from the hand, and walked 

 about his garden like so many tame fowl, mingling occa- 

 sionally with the poultry. In the Spring they strutted, 

 19 



