PINNATED GROUSE. 



Tympanuchus cupido. 

 Tympanuchus americanus. 

 Tympanuchus americanus attwateri. 

 Tympanuchus pallidicinctus. 



The familiar prairie chicken or prairie hen of a 

 generation ago was the pinnated grouse, once so 

 abundant in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and to the 

 westward. It is remembered by older readers as abun- 

 dant in our markets, where it sold for seventy-five cents 

 per pair. In later years the term prairie chicken has 

 been applied equally to the sharp-tail grouse, a species 

 of more western distribution; and, generally, in the 

 western country, any grouse found in the open are 

 called "chickens." 



The pinnated grouse include four forms, grouped 

 together under the genus Tympanuchus, a name which 

 refers to the inflatable sac on the neck of all these 

 grouse. All these forms are so similar as hardly to 

 be distinguished by any one save a practiced ornitholo- 

 gist. Birds of this group were formerly abundant on 

 the Atlantic coast, as well as throughout much of the 

 western country until the semi-arid plains were 

 reached. So far as we know, their western boundary, 

 roughly stated, was western Minnesota, eastern Ne- 



206 



