204 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



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 favorite food is buckwheat, corn, oats, wheat, and 

 grass-seed, the buds of fruit-trees, and the seed of the sumac. 



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 ; feath- 

 ers 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-colored in the males and dull brown 

 in the females ; the wings short and much rounded ; pin- 

 feathers hard and short ; tail short and composed of eight- 

 een broad feathers ; bill dusky ; iris yellow ; toes dull yel- 

 low ; claws bluish ; the neck and upper portion of back dark 

 brown, mixed with gray, getting lighter beneath ; tail dirty 

 brown, tipped with white, except the middle feathers, which 

 are mottled with a deep brown ; and a dark line from man- 

 dible to eye, thence back to neck, and a beautiful patch of 

 soft slate-colored feathers under each wing, invaluable to 

 the fly-tyer is a correct description of their appearance. 



The following are the events of a day's shooting on the 

 Grand Prairie, which occurred a few years since, and may 

 be considered as a sample of the average sport to be en- 

 joyed in the month of October : 



On rising from the breakfast-table we found the team 

 waiting. But few minutes were necessary to stow our 

 traps, and get under way. Near the confines of the village 

 (Kent, Indiana) we found birds ; but our driver (who was 



