PINNATED GROUSE 209 



closed between narrower black feathers ; in other words, 

 the edges of this dark bar are black, and this is true all 

 over the bird. The lesser prairie hen is found in Kan- 

 sas, southwestern Missouri, Oklahoma and west 

 central Texas. 



Along the coast region of Texas and southwestern 

 Louisiana is found a well-marked race of pinnated 

 grouse, which Major Bendire named in honor of Mr. 

 H. P. Attwater, who brought the bird to the attention 

 of ornithologists. It is about the size of the lesser 

 prairie hen, but has the foot feathered only on the 

 upper two-thirds of the tarsus; the tips of the long 

 feathers of the wing-like neck tufts are square. 



THE HEATH HEN. 



The .bird of the Atlantic coast now known as the 

 heath hen is almost extinct, the only existing colony 

 being on Martha's Vineyard, an island off the 

 coast of Massachusetts. It was formerly found in 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, Long Island, New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware, but has long 

 been exterminated from most of these regions. 



Thus, long before any of the other so-called prairie 

 grouse had been discovered, the pinnated grouse was 

 well known. Indeed, it may very well be that when 

 the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock, the first 

 flesh meat that they tasted in the new country was the 

 coast form of what in later times was called prairie hen 

 or prairie chicken, then known as heath cocke or heath 



