16 GROUSE AND WILD TuEKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 



of its food. This fact perhaps may be a useful hint to anyone who 

 attempts to introduce the bird or to improve its environment. The 

 other fruit found was of little importance — merely 0.78 percent. It 

 was made up of domestic cherries, woodbine berries, sumac, poison 

 ivy, huckleberries, strawberries, partridge berries, mistletoe, wild 

 grapes, the berries of Solanum and Symphoricarpus^ and cornel 

 {Cornus asperifolia). Of the frugivorous habits of the prairie hen 

 Audubon writes : " 



In the western country, at the approach of winter, these birds frequent the 

 tops of the sumach bushes, to feed on their seeds, often in such numbers that I 

 have seen the bushes bent by their weight. 



It is important to note that often when deep snow causes scarcity 

 of other supplies the sumac affords both the prairie hen and the bob- 

 white abundant food. As with the insect food, further investigation 

 undoubtedly will extend the fruit list. 



The prairie hen eats a much smaller proportion of seeds, with the 

 exception of grain, than the bobwhite, and in this respect is less useful 

 than the latter bird. It is, however, a better weeder than any other 

 grouse, and its services in this particular are worthy of consideration. 

 As before stated, seeds make 14.87 percent of the annual diet. Of 

 these, grass seeds form 1.03 percent; seeds of various polygonums, 

 8.49 percent, and miscellaneous weed seeds, 5.35 percent. When the 

 nature of the prairie hen's habitat is recalled it seems strange that the 

 percentage of grass seed is so small. The bobwhite, in contrast, takes 

 9.46 percent of grass seed. Like the bobwhite and other granivorous 

 birds, the prairie hen often eats the seeds of the various species of 

 panicums, the paspalums, and pigeon grass {ChcBtochloa viridis). 



The seeds of different polygonums, or smartweeds, play an impor- 

 tant part in the economy of the prairie hen. They form 8.49 percent 

 of the food. These plants grow profusely where illy drained regions 

 of the .plains are under water for a few months in the year. Black 

 bindweed {Polygonum convolvulus) and smartweed {Polygonum 

 lapathifolium) , with the closely related dock {Rumex crispus), are 

 included in the bill of fare. Of the 5.35 percent of remaining mis- 

 cellaneous seeds, ragweed (Amirosia artemisioe folia) is the most 

 important element, but is insignificant in amount when compared 

 with the same element of the bobwhite's food. Other composit89 

 are eaten by the prairie hen — wild sunflower, coreopsis (Coreopsis 

 car daminef olio), and others. The prairie hen has a liking for 

 legumes, reminding one again of the bobwhite. It selects two of the 

 latter's favorites — cassia, and the hog peanut {Falcata comosa). It 

 takes also the seeds of a closely related plant, the prairie mimosa 

 {Acuan). It has been known to feed on seeds of water willow 

 {Dianthera sp.), the yellow false garlic {N othoscordum bivale), 



" Ornith. Biog., II, p. 501, 1835. 



