THE PRAIRIE-HEN. 205 



As for eating them, such a thing was hardly dreamed of, the 

 negroes themselves preferring the coarsest food to this now much- 

 admired bird; while the young sportsman exercised his skill in 

 rifle-shooting upon them, in anticipation of more exciting sport 

 among the other prized denizens of the plain and forest. Prairie- 

 chickens have not only deserted Long Island, Martha's Vineyard, 

 Elizabeth Island, New Jersey, and their other haunts to the east- 

 ward, but they have also removed even farther west than the bar- 

 rens of Kentucky, and are no longer to be found abundant save in 

 Illinois, and on the extensive plains of the Missouri, Arkansas, and 

 Columbia Rivers. 



PERIOD OF PAIRING. 



As soon as the winter breaks up, the pairing season commences, 

 generally in March or early in April ; then it is that one can dis- 

 tinguish the well-known booming sound of the male bird, known as 

 the "tooting" of the cock. This singular noise is produced by the 

 inflation and exhalation of the two small bags which are found on 

 the neck, and appear to be formed by the expansion of the skin of 

 the gullet, which, when not filled with air, hangs in loose, pendu- 

 lous, wrinkled folds. 



Audubon remarks: "When the receptacles of air, which, in 

 form, color, and size, resemble a small orange, are perfectly in- 

 flated, the bird lowers its head to the ground, opens its bill, and 

 sends forth, as it were, the air contained in these bladders in dis- 

 tinctly-separated notes, rolling one after another from loud to low, 

 and producing a sound like that of a large muffled drum. This 

 done, the bird immediately erects itself, refills its receptacles by 

 inhalation, and again proceeds with its l tooting 8.' " 



This "tooting" can be heard at times as far off as a mile, more 

 particularly on a clear, mild morning. If the air-cells be punc- 

 tured with a small, sharp instrument of any kind, they cannot, of 

 course, be again inflated, and the "tootings," consequently, are at 

 an end. 



These birds, like the ruffed grouse, are extremely pugnacious at 



