WILSON'S PHALAROPE-LEAST TERN— PRAIRIE HEN— CEDAR BIRD. 



81 



the two coasts with wonderful pertinacity, making excursions up 

 every bay and estuary, and threads the course of all our three 

 great rivers, while performing its remarkably extensive migrations. 

 Considering in what high latitudes it breeds, it is astonishing how 

 early toward the fall it again appears among us after its brief absence. 

 The last birds have not all left the United States in May ; some 

 time in August the young come straggling back, though they are 

 not numerous until the autumn has fairly set in." 



Gray op Wilson's Phalarope. (Phalaropus wilsonii.') 

 Fig. 4. 



This bird is one of the largest and most elegant of all tne Pha- 

 laropes. It is a rare bird throughout the Eastern States, but is 

 found in abundance in the Western, where it breeds in Iowa, Illi- 

 nois, Minnesota, to the north and northwest as far as the fur coun- 

 tries, and is exceedingly plentiful in the Mississippi valley. Its 

 nest is an exceedingly crude affair, usually laying their eggs in 

 the grass, selecting the borders of small ponds and reedy pools. 

 The eggs vary in ground color from a clay to a brownish drab, 

 overlaid with many spots and blotches of a brownish drab. 

 Dr. Elliott Coues, in his "Birds of the Northwest," gives the fol- 

 lowing anecdote regarding them. He says : " Three Phalaropes 

 came in great concern and alighted on the water where a dead 

 Avocet was floating, swimming back and forth, and almost caress- 

 ing it with their bill. The Avocet's mate himself, who was not 

 long in reaching the spot, showed no greater agitation than his 

 little friends and neighbors the Phalaropes did ; and though it was 

 only birds « of a low order of beings,' who thus exhibited sym- 

 pathy and grief, who could look on such a scene unmoved ?" 



Least Tern. (Sterna super ciZiarts.) 



Fig. 5- 



Audubon calls this beautiful little bird the Humming-bird of the 

 water-fowls, and indulges in a perfect ecstasy of enthusiasm in 

 describing it. It is a common bird along the Atlantic coasts of 

 the United States, on the larger inland waters, up the Pacific coast 

 to California, and south into the Antilles and in Middle America 

 generally. Their nests are various, sometimes masses of moss, 

 cunningly interwoven, bits of sea-grass gathered in a pile, or if 

 these are not convenient, laying their eggs on the bare shingle. 

 The eggs are from one to three, colored so nearly like their sur- 

 roundings as to be barely discernible, varying from a pale greenish- 

 white to a dull drab, marked with small spots and splashes of 

 brown. They are fearless in the defense of their young. Their 

 common notes resemble those of the Barn Swallow, and like them 

 they eat upon the wing, though they frequently devour small fish 

 upon the beach. 



PLATE LV. 

 Pinnated Grouse— Prairie Hen. {Cupidonta cupido.) 



The Prairie Hen was once common throughout the Eastern 

 States, particularly in localities destitute of much moisture and 

 thinly covered with trees or shrubbery. A few are still found on 

 Martha's Island, around New York, and in New Jersey and Penn- 

 sylvania. Like the Indian, they are from year to year crowded 

 farther and still farther into the West, and if the wholesale de- 

 struction of the last few years is continued, will ultimately become 

 very rare. They are at present found in great abundance all 

 along the fertile prairies of the United States, almost to the foot 



hills of the Rocky Mountains, in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Mis- 

 souri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Texas. They delight in broad 

 open champaigns, where they congregate in flocks of several 

 hundred, and feed upon orthoptera, green herbage, and in the 

 winter do serious damage in nipping the buds of fruit and other 

 trees. If allowed to flourish, they would prove the most effectual 

 check to the grasshopper ravages in our Western States. As 

 soon as the winter is broken, usually in March or April, they 

 commence pairing. Some favored locality is selected, where the 

 males are accustomed to meet for the purpose of testing their re- 

 spective superiority. With tails outspread and inclining forward 

 to meet their expanded neck-feathers, and with wings distended 

 and grating against the ground, they strut backward and forward 

 with the utmost pomposity, nursing and increasing their wrath, 

 and giving utterance to a series of loud, muffled boomings. This 

 peculiar noise is accomplished through the inflation of two small 

 orange-colored, bladder-like receptacles on each side of the neck. 

 Drawing in the air until these bags become fully inflated, the bird 

 lowers its head, and gives out, in distinct succession, a series of 

 booming sounds resembling the beating of a muffled drum, and, 

 on still clear mornings, capable of being heard more than a mile. 

 When the females congregate in response to this call, a furious 

 battle ensues among the male belligerents. Rising into the air 

 after the manner of game-cocks, they strike at each other with the 

 utmost fury, sometimes several joining in a miscellaneous scrim- 

 mage, until the weaker ones are forced to retire and the stronger 

 utterly exhausted. After the pairing, a coarse nest, rudely con- 

 structed of leaves and grass, is formed, hid away in the open plain, 

 or at the foot of some small bush. From eight to ten eggs are laid, 

 varying in size, the largest about 1.80 by 1.25, of a very light 

 green ground, sometimes unmarked, sometimes spotted with fine 

 brown markings. The female incubates from eighteen to twenty 

 days, and when the young are hatched, their entire care devolves 

 upon the female. Ever on the alert, if her young charge is 

 threatened, she gives a low cluck as a signal of danger, when the 

 brood instantly take to their wings, flying a short distance, then 

 dropping to the ground and remaining perfectly still, making it 

 almost impossible to discover them. After the danger is over, a 

 second signal relieves them. But one brood is raised during the 

 season; though, if through any misfortunes the first laying is de- 

 stroyed, the female seeks out her mate, builds another nest, lays a 

 new complement of eggs, and tries her fortune a second time. 

 Their flight is strong, regular, tolerably swift, and sometimes ex- 

 tended. They rise from the ground with a whirring sound, and 

 if they discover a sportsman, go with the utmost speed, and then 

 suddenly drop into the grass. They feed mostly at the beginning 

 and close of day, using the mid-day for the purpose of a dust bath, 

 when they lay and prune their feathers. The flesh is dark, having 

 a gamy flavor, and, where not too common, is considered a great 

 treat. 



PLATE LVI. 



Cedar Bird. (Ampelis cedrorum.) 



Fig. i. 



This bird is common throughout all the wooded parts of North 

 America, and breeds from Florida to the extreme North. They 

 are eminently sociable and affectionate to each other, and are in- 

 variably found in flocks. They have no song, or one so indistinct 

 as not to attract notice, but they possess a low, lisping utterance, 

 which they constantly give voice to. Inordinate feeders, they 

 have been known to gorge themselves until they became utterly 

 helpless and an easy prey ; and it is a curious sight to watch a flock 

 of them stripping some mountain ash when in its fullest fruitage. 

 They arrive in Northern New York long before the April snows 



