226 



KEY AND DESCRIPTION 



the rounded, blackish tail is white tipped. The female has the 

 neck tufts much smaller. This is a bird of the open prairies, 

 rarely found, except during severe storms, within timbered 

 tracts. (Pinnated Grouse ; Prairie Chicken.) 



Length, 17-19 ; wing, 9 (8|-9;); tail, 4 ; tarsus, 2 ; oulmen, J. Prairies 

 of the Mississippi Valley, south to Louisiana, east to Ohio, north to 

 Ontario, and west to Nebraska. The Heath Hen (300. Tympaniichus 

 cupido) , of Martha's Vineyard (formerly New England and Middle States) , 

 differs from the last in that the neck tufts consist of less than ten pointed 

 feathers. There are but few (less than 100) of these birds left on the 

 island. 



9. Lesser Prairie Hen (307. Tympaniichus pallidiclnctus). — A 

 southwestern bird similar to the common prairie hen in dimen- 

 sions of parts, but paler and browner in color, and with the 

 tarsus much less fully feathered. The darker bars of the back 

 appear in sets of threes, there being a continuous broad bar 

 inclosed between two narrower and darker ones in 

 each set. From Texas to Kansas along the eastern 

 edge of the Great Plains. 



Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse (SOS*". Pedioccetes 



[pi'il-i-o-se-tes] phasianellus campestris). — 

 large, northwestern, sharp-tailed, 

 ^■ery much mottled, brownish 

 grouse, with the central tail 

 feathers projecting and 

 rounded at tip, and 

 the outer ones sharp- 

 pointed. There 

 are no neck tufts of 

 peculiar feathers, but 

 the breast has many 

 V-shaped, black marks. The middle of the belly is white. 

 This is a somewhat migratory bird, living in the open prairies 

 in summer, and in wooded tracts in winter. 



Length, 15-19 ; wing, 8i ; tail, 4f ; culmen, |. Plains and prairies of 

 the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, east to Illinois, and south 

 to New Mexico. 



Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse 



