THE PRAIRIE CHICKEN 111 



strange reason several members of the Grouse Family are 

 surprisingly slow to comprehend man's true nature and ac- 

 quire the flight instinct, which most other species learn by 

 experience in a few generations of contact with the Univer- 

 sal Killer. 



CANADA GROUSE. 



The male Canada Grouse is readily recognized by its 

 black breast and throat, and black tail, which handsomely set 

 off the barred gray back and sides. 



THE PINNATED GROUSE, or PRAIRIE CHICKEN/ lives 

 chiefly in the memories of those who from 1860 to 1875 were 

 "western men," or boys. At that time Illinois, Wisconsin 

 and Iowa, and the states adjoining, were the "West." Rail- 

 roads were few, all guns were muzzle-loaders, and the game- 

 dealers of Chicago were not stretching out their deadly ten- 

 tacles, like so many long-armed octopi, to suck the last drop 

 of wild-game blood from prairie and forest. The "market- 



1 Tym-pa-nu'chus americanus. Average length of male, 18 inches* 



