144 TETRAONIDjE. 



normal plumage, and in others very much darker. 

 Generally, however, the upper plumage of the Prairie 

 Hen is a rich brown, banded with yellowish stripes. The 

 wings, of a grey brown, are barred with reddish yellow ; 

 a brown stripe extends from the nostril along the 

 side of the head, and another from the lower mandible 

 to the throat, the naked space above the eye being of 

 a bright orange. The lower plumage is grey, tawny, 

 and cream colour, barred and variegated with pale brown. 

 The tail is varied with light brown and brownish- 

 yellow, marked most commonly with bars of darker 

 brown, though some specimens have the tail of a uniform 

 colour throughout. 



The male bird has a small crest, and on either side 

 of the neck a tuft, consisting of five long black feathers, 

 and thirteen smaller ones of a very dark brown, striped 

 down the centre with a warm buff. These tufts, or 

 neck wings, conceal a wrinkled yellow membrane of bare 

 skin, which he has the power of inflating to a con- 

 siderable size, and by means of which, during the 

 breeding season, he makes a curious hollow sound, which 

 though not loud, may be heard nearly a mile off. 

 Audubon, in order to prove whether these bladders were 

 necessary to the production of the booming sound, 

 having procured a tame bird, passed the point of a pin 

 through each of the air cells, the consequence of which 



