194 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



frequent the edges of the timber, roosting on the tallest 

 trees, more particularly girdlings or those destitute 

 of small limbs. Under such circumstances they are 

 exceedingly wild, and the most successful deer or 

 turkey-hunter may practise all his cunning and most 

 cautious methods of approach with signal failure in 

 getting even within rifle range ; however, in a snow- 

 storm, by putting white clothes on, or a night-gown 

 over your attire and tying a towel around your head, 

 with facility the gunner can get within ten or fifteen 

 yards of them. 



When flushed, prairie chicken invariably utter several 

 separate clucks, but after they have succeeded in placing 

 a safe distance between themselves and the intruder they 

 continue their course in silence ; nor if when on the 

 wing they should chance to fly over a sportsman do 

 they repeat their note of alarm. 



Their favourite food is buckwheat, corn, oats, wheat, 

 and grass-seed, the budS of fruit trees and the seed of 

 the sumach. 



Their size is eighteen inches long by twenty-seven 

 inches across the wings : bill short, stout and curved, 

 with the upper mandible considerably overlapping the 

 lower; legs feathered to the ankle; feet of ordinary 

 size ; toes covered above with numerous small scales ; 

 hind toes very short ; claws moderately long, curved 

 and concave beneath ; feathers compact, those of the 

 head and neck long and flexible, with a continuation 

 tapering to a crest on back of head ; on either side a 

 tuft of fine long hackles, covering a bare portion, which 

 is orange coloured in the males and dull brown in the 

 females; the wings short and much rounded; pin 

 feathers hard and short ; tail short and composed 



