BIRDS OF 



found along the south western frontier, but their numbers are 

 on the decrease. In the List of Birds of Western Ontario it is 

 stated that a few still breed at St. Clair. From W. E. 

 Wagstaff, one of the oldest and most respected settlers in the 

 County of Essex, I have a most interesting letter regarding the 

 birds he. has observed during his long residence there. Of this 

 species he says : "I have never seen Prairie Chickens alive, 

 but have heard of their being seen in bands about Sandwich. 

 When I first came to Amherstburg, about 1840, I heard the old 

 sports tell of having killed them in the gardens of the town." 



From the foregoing it w T ould appear that the days of the 

 Prairie Chicken in Ontario are numbered. They afford 

 excellent sport to the gunner, and the facilities for reaching 

 them in their remote haunts are now so much increased, that 

 year by year, even in the United States, they are being driven 

 to regions still more remote. 



In the first week in May, 1886, some young men were 

 practising flight shooting at such waterfowl as were passing 

 between the bay and the lake near the canal at the Beach. 

 Presently a bird of different flight and shape came buzzing 

 along, and was brought down by one of the gunners who was 

 greatly astonished to find he had killed a male Prairie Chicken 

 in fine spring plumage. I came along shortly after and saw 

 the bird just as picked up. It had been going at a very rapid 

 rate, but whence it came, or whither bound, was not apparent. 



GENUS PEDIOC^TES BAIRD. 



126. PEDIOC/ETES PHASIANELLUS (LINN.). 308. 

 Sharp-tailed Grouse. 



Adult male : A decurved crest of narrow feathers ; a bare space on each 

 side of the neck capable of being inflated ; tail short, much graduated, of 

 sixteen feathers, all of which are more or less concave, excepting the two 

 middle ones along the inner edge, obliquely and abruptly terminated, the 

 two middle projecting an inch beyond the rest. Upper parts variegated with 

 light yellowish-red, brownish-black and white, the latter in terminal 

 triangular or guttiform spots on the scapulars and wing-coverts ; quills 

 grayish-brown, primaries with white spots on the outer web ; secondaries 



128 



