104 
300b. Bonasa umbellus umbelloides (Dougl.). [478a.] Gray Ruffed Grouse. 
This is a bird of the Rocky Mountain region and western British 
America. Mr. Ridgway has examined specimens of it collected near 
Carberry, in western Manitoba, by Mr. Ernest E. Thompson. 
301. Lagopus lagopus (Linn.). [474.] Willow Ptarmigan. 
The Willow Grouse has been exterminated or driven away from most 
of its range in the United States. Formerly it visited northern Illinois 
in winter, but is not known to do so now. A few are still found in 
Minnesota, where it is so rare that the Indians have no name for it. 
The Willow Grouse was noted during the winter of 1883-1884 at Portage 
la Prairie, Manitoba, by Mr. Nash, who states that it visits Lake Mani- 
toba every winter. 
305. Tympanuchus americanus (Reich.). [477.] Prairie Hen; Pinnated Grouse. 
The Prairie Hen is common on the prairies of the Mississippi Valley 
from southeastern Texas and Louisiana northward as far as our bound- 
ary, which it reached in 1881. In 1883 it began to be common at Pem- 
bina. In 1884 it became common at Winnipeg, Manitoba, and appeared 
in large numbers at Portage la Prairie, on the Assiniboine River (lati- 
tude 50°).* It has been gradually spreading westward, and previous to 
the great extension of the railroad it kept just about abreast of the set- 
tlements. Dr. Coues, writing in 1874, said that it then inhabited the east- 
ern half of Minnesota, but he had no reason to believe that it occurred at 
all in northwestern Minnesota or northern Dakota. In June, 1879, Rob- 
erts and Benner saw several at Herman, Minn., 40 miles from the Dakota 
linet In 1880 I found it abundant in northwestern Minnesota up to 
latitude 47° and only 40 miles from the Dakota line. I also heard that 
it was then not uncommon across the Red river, at Grand Forks, Dak. 
Now it has occupied the whole length of eastern Dakota, covering a strip 
from 30 to 60°miles in width. At the same time it has spread from 
middle to western Kansas, and from eastern Texas to Colman county, 
alittle west of the middle of the State. Mr. Nehrling says of it in south- 
eastern Texas near Houston: “‘ Common resident on all the flat, grassy 
prairies. Is becoming scarcer every year.” (Bull. Nut. Ornith. Club, 
Vol. VII, 1882, p. 175.) In Indian Territory it is found as far west at 
least as the middle of the State. 
The following letter from Mr. C. W. Nash, of Portage la Prairie, 
Manitoba (latitude 50°), gives an interesting account of the invasion of 
that locality by this species: 
The first information I received of the appearance of the Pinnated Grouse in this 
Province was from a farmer living about 8 miles north of this town (Portage la Prai- 
rie), who had shot one in the fall of 1882. I did not see the bird, but from the descrip- 
tion he gave me of it I could not mistake it. I immediately made inquiries among 
the hunters of this locality, but no one else had seen it. In the fall of 1883 I again 
heard of the bird in oneor two places, but saw none myself. In the fall of 1884 it 
* Ernest E. Thompson in The Auk, Vol. III, 1886, p. 153. 
t+ Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, Vol. V, 1880, p. 18. 
