THE PRAIRIE HEN. 



( Tympanuckus americanus. ) 



Westward the Prairie Chicken, like the course of empire, takes its way; for although it 

 may increase at the pioneer stage of civilization, it halts at the introduction of the steam 

 plough and railroad, to disappear forever where villages run together into cities. 



— Neltje Blanchan, in "Birds that Hunt and are Hunted." 



The habits of the Prairie Hen are op- 

 posed to the ways of civilization and to 

 its own best interests. Its range at an 

 earlier period was much larger than at 

 the present day, and seems to have ex- 

 tended quite to the Atlantic coast. Its 

 extermination in many localities has been 

 due to one or all of several causes. It 

 was extensively sought by the hunter of 

 game birds, and its apparent lack of 

 judgment in the selection of nesting sites 

 has also assisted in its extermination. 

 Many nests are placed in meadows and 

 fields where the eggs are destroyed by 

 mowing machines or ploughed under in 

 the breaking up of the soil. To a cer- 

 tain extent, their grain-eating proclivities 

 excite the enmity of the farmers. Major 

 Bendire states that "immense numbers 

 of nests are annually destroyed, either by 

 fire in dry seasons or water during wet 

 ones." He also adds that it is safe to 

 compute the loss of eggs from these two 

 causes at fifty per cent. 



It is evident that the Prairie Hen can- 

 not adapt its ways so that they will not 

 conflict with the ways of man, and in 

 such a manner that it will to a certain 

 extent, at least, be protected. As man 

 has pushed his settlements westward, the 

 range of this bird has been, and is still, 

 gradually contracting from east to west. 

 Major Bendire gives its geographical 

 range as follows : "Prairies of the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley; south to Louisiana and 

 Texas ; west to Northern Indian Terri- 

 tory, middle Kansas, Nebraska, and east- 

 ern North and South Dakota ; east to 

 Kentucky, Indiana, northwestern Ohio, 

 southeastern Michigan, and southwestern 

 Ontario, Canada ; north to southern 

 Manitoba." 



The Prairie Hen is most interesting 

 during the mating season. The mating 

 ceremony is so graphically described by 

 Mr. John Dean Caton in "Forest and 

 Stream," that we quote his words in full : 

 "The spring of the year is the season 

 of courtship with them, and it does not 

 last all the year round, as it does with 

 humans, and they do it in rather a loud 

 way, too ; and instead of taking the even- 

 ings, as many people are inclined to do, 

 they choose the early morning. Early in 

 the morning you may see them assemble 

 in parties, from a dozen to fifty together, 

 on some dry knolls, where the grass is 

 short, and their goings on would make 

 you laugh. The cock birds have a loose 

 patch of naked yellow skin on each side 

 of the neck just below the head, and 

 above these on either side, just where 

 the head joins the neck, are a few long 

 black feathers, which ordinarily lay 

 backward on the neck, but which, when 

 excited, they can pitch straight forward. 

 These yellow naked patches on either 

 side of the neck cover sacks which they 

 can blow up like a bladder whenever they 

 choose. These are their ornaments, 

 which they display to the best advantage 

 before the gentler sex at these love 

 feasts. This they do by blowing up 

 their air sacs till they look like two ripe 

 oranges, on each side of the neck, proj- 

 ecting their long black ears right for- 

 ward, ruffling up all the feathers of the 

 body till they stand out straight, and 

 drooping their wings to the ground like 

 a turkey cock. Now they look just love- 

 ly, as the coy, timid maidens seem to 

 say, as they cast side glances at them, 

 full of admiration and of love. 



"Then it is that the proud cock, in or- 



