BULLETIN NUMBER FIVE 203 



"My impression is that the sage hens are now on the in- 

 crease, and that with continued hunting restrictions they 

 should come near resuming their former status, save as in- 

 evitably prevented by cultivation and thick settlement." 



THE PINNATED GROUSE, OR PRAIRIE CHICKEN. 



Everything said herein regarding the fate that threatens 

 the sage and sharp-tailed grouse, and fool hen, and the dras- 

 tic measures necessary to have them from oblivion, may be 

 applied en masse to the pinnated grouse. It is unnecessary 

 to go into full details regarding it. The fate of that fine 

 species is up to the legislatures of the few states of the Mid- 

 dle West that it still inhabits on a remnant basis, — Minne- 

 sota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and the 

 northern limits of Iowa. 



Already the Minnesota Game Protective League, headed 

 by Mr. Clinton M. Odell, is wide awake to the fate that 

 threatens the prairie chicken in Minnesota, and the League 

 has gone on record with a demand for a 5-year close season, 

 at once. This movement is strongly supported by the Min- 

 neapolis Journal and other Minnesota newspapers, and we 

 confidently believe that the next legislature will take reso- 

 lute action in the form of a close season law. 



Of course it is true that in widely-separated spots in the 

 Dakotas, and in winter in Iowa also, there are a few good 

 flocks of prairie chickens; but let no one be deceived by 

 that fact. There are only enough birds to serve as breeding 

 stock in bringing back the species to some of those states! 

 I think that nothing ever will really bring it back to central 

 and southern Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, or Missouri. 



The pinnated grouse is a migratory bird. It deserves 

 federal protection on that basis, but I never have been able 

 to make the U. S. Biological Survey admit those two facts. 

 Only two weeks ago (October, 1916) Mr. Clark Williams, 

 while duck-shooting in South Dakota, witnessed during sev- 

 en days a very pronounced and impressive migration of 



