2 88 



The Fowl-like Birds 



shaped, we come to the well-known Pinnated Grouse, or Prairie Hens (Tympa- 

 nuchus), which make their homes on the broad prairies of the Mississippi 

 Valley and a few other isolated but topographically similar localities. They 

 are fine large birds,' some seventeen to nineteen inches long, with a brownish 

 and dusky barred plumage, and the males are further characterized by the 

 presence of an erectile tuft of stiff elongated feathers, and an inflatable air-sac 

 on each side of the neck. The females lack the air-sac and have the neck-tufts 

 rudimentary. The principal species is the Prairie Hen, or Prairie Chicken 

 (T. americanus), of the prairies of the middle West from Wisconsin and Indiana 

 to Dakota and middle Kansas. They are usually resident wherever found, but 

 occasionally there is some semblance of a migration during severe winters, and 

 curiously it is only the females which change their range, the males being left 

 to "brave the winter's cold." At the beginning of the nesting season the 

 "love-making" of the males is an interesting spectacle. Selecting some 

 high, dry knoll, wiiere the grass is short, "scratching grounds" as they are 



called, they congregate in the early morn- 

 ing in parties of from a dozen to often fifty. 

 The males inflate the air-sacs until they look 

 "like two ripe oranges on each side of the 

 neck," at the same time throwing forward 

 the long black neck-tufts, ruffling up the 

 body feathers, and dropping their wings to 

 the ground. "Then it is," says Caton, "that 

 the proud cock, in order to complete his 

 triumph, will rush forward at his best speed 

 for two or three rods through the midst of 

 the love-sick damsels, pouring out as he goes 

 a booming noise, almost a hoarse roar, only 

 more subdued, which may be heard for at 

 least two miles in the still morning air. This 

 heavy booming sound is by no means harsh 



or unpleasant; on the contrary, it is soft and even harmonious. When standing 

 in the open prairie at early dawn, listening to hundreds of different, voices, pitched 

 on different keys, coming from every direction and from various distances, the 

 listener is rather soothed than excited. If this sound is heavier than the deep 

 keynotes of a large organ, it is much softer, though vastly more powerful, and 

 may be heard at a much greater distance." The birds disperse when the sun is 

 half an hour high, to assemble the next morning, and so on for a week or two 

 until all have made satisfactory matches. The nesting site is usually selected 

 with little care as regards safety from disturbance, being a slight depression under 

 a bush or among grass and weeds. Many nests are annually destroyed by the 

 burning over of the ground, by being plowed under, or by predatory animals. 

 The eggs are usually from eight to fourteen, though as many as twenty -one have 

 been noted. The period of incubation is from three to four weeks, and the young 

 run about as soon as they are out of the shell. Their care devolves entirely upon 



FlG. 95. Prairie Hen, Tympanuchus 

 americanus. 



