[405] 



THE PEAIEIE CHICKEN, 



OR SHARPTAILED GROUSE. 



(Pedioecetes PhasianellnsJ. (Baird). 



BY ERNEST E. T. SETON. 



For brevity I may describe it as a grouse, mottled above and 

 white below, pretty much like all the family, but unlike in having 

 the tail feathers very stiff and so short that the upper coverts ending 

 in^, a point project beyond the quill feathers. Hence the name 

 " Sharptail," or more commonly " Pintail," though throughout this 

 country it is most known as the " Prairie Chicken." 



To avoid that most tedious and thankless task, a detailed verbal 

 description, I forward herewith a stuffed specimen, a female, but there 

 is little difference between the sexes. The males have bright yellow 

 bare skin over the eye (not red, as say Wilson and Audubon), and on 

 each side of the neck a bare airsac, blue, and about the size of a 

 pigeon's egg. These connect with the mouth, for they can be in- 

 flated by blowing down the throat. "When the bird is quiescent 

 they are merely sunk under the surrounding feathers, which are not 

 in any way specially developed to hide them, as in the Ruffed and 

 Pinnated Grouse. In the breeding season they are in a state of 

 chronic inflation and brilliancy. 



The females differ only in having their bare skin ornamentations 

 much less (not absent, as I have seen stated). The young of both 

 sexes are indistinguishable from the female or the male in non- 

 breeding season, except that they are a little smaller, and have the 

 hair-like feathers on the feet shorter and more marked with dusky. 



In the feathering of the legs this grouse comes just between the 

 Ruffed Grouse of the South and the Ptarmigan of the North, as 

 does the bird itself geographically. The feathering stops at the 

 base of the toes, but by reason of its length the toes are half hidden. 



Their toes, as in all grouse, are notably pectinated. Not having 

 heard of any use for these combs, I append a few observations. In 



