232 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



time enormously abundant, and, being exceedingly 

 tame at certain seasons of the year, was very readily 

 destroyed. 



Throughout almost all this region the bird was resi- 

 dent, though in the northern portion it regularly made 

 seasonal changes of location, which, though commonly 

 called migratory, hardly deserve to be so character- 

 ized. On this point Mr. W. W. Cooke, in his report 

 on "Bird Migration in the Mississippi Valley," says: 



"The prairie chicken is commonly said to be a resi- 

 dent bird, and so it is in a larger part of this range, 

 but in Iowa a regular though local migration takes 

 place. This has been mentioned by former writers, and 

 in the spring of 1884 a special study was made of the 

 matter. Many observers unite in testifying to the facts 

 in the case, and, what is still more important, there is 

 not a dissenting voice. One of the observers does not 

 exaggerate when he says : 'Prairie chickens migrate as 

 regularly as the Canada goose/ Summing up all the 

 information received, the facts of the case are as 

 follows : In November and December large flocks of 

 prairie chickens come from northern Iowa and southern 

 Minnesota to settle for the winter in northern Missouri 

 and southern Iowa. This migration varies in bulk with 

 the severity of the winter. 



"During an early cold snap immense flocks come 

 from the northern prairies to southern Iowa, while in 

 mild, open winters the migration is much less pro- 

 nounced. During a cold, wet spring the northward 

 movement in March and April is largely arrested on 



