14 FEATHERED GAME 
as not escapes. At the season’s opening they 
are easy marks and readily killed, but when 
later they ‘‘pack’’ for the winter they are 
strong fliers and wary enough, giving only the 
longest of shots. The shooting at this season 
really calls for some degree of skill. 
Our bird nests in June or even in the first 
half of July, which seems late for this latitude, 
making its nest on the ground in a brushy shel- 
ter, and laying from six to twelve eggs, usually 
nearer the smaller number. The eggs are of a 
greenish gray color. 
In its markings the Heath Hen does not dif- 
fer materially from the ordinary form of 
Prairie Chicken though of slightly darker col- 
oring. The description of one will pass for the 
other and is as follows: the Pinnated Grouse, 
as this bird is named in the books, (so called 
from the neck-tufts, like small wings, the dis- 
tinguishing mark of the genus) varies in length 
from sixteen to eighteen inches. Upper parts 
dull pale yellow or whitish, regularly barred 
across the body and wings with dark brown and 
dusky; throat pale yellow with a few scattering 
speckles of dusky color. Under parts marked 
much like the upper, but the barrings more 
