Bob Whites, Grouse, etc. 



Colorado, Dakota, Montana, and Idaho. Where the Canadian 

 variety encroaches its territory, however, little or no difference 

 in the plumage may be detected. The account of the ruffed 

 grouse's habits, nest, etc., should be read to avoid repetition, 

 since the Oregon bird is simply a climatic variation of the eastern 

 species. 



Prairie Ciiicken 



(Tympanuchus americanus) 



Called also: PINNATED GROUSE ; PRAIRIE HEN 



Length — About i6 to i8 inches. 



Male and Female — Upper parts brown, barred with black, chest- 

 nut, ochre, and whitish, the latter chiefly on wings ; sides of 

 the neck tufted with ten or more narrow, stiff feathers, 

 rounded at end, which may be erected like conventional 

 Cupid's wings above the head. Their color black, with buff 

 centres, frequently chestnut on inner webs; bare, yellow, 

 loose skin below these feathers may be inflated at will ; the 

 dusky, brown, white tipped tail rounded, the inner feathers 

 somewhat mottled with buff; chin and throat buff; breast 

 and underneath whitish, evenly barred with black. Head 

 slightly crested; legs scantily feathered in front only. Fe- 

 male smaller, the neck tufts much restricted, no inflated 

 sacs below them; the tail feathers with numerous distinct 

 buff bars. 



Range — "Prairies of the Mississippi Valley; south to Louisiana 

 and Texas; east to Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and 

 Ontario; west through eastern portions of North Dakota, 

 South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Indian Territory; 

 north to Manitoba ; general tendency to extension of range 

 westward and contraction eastward; migration north and 

 south in Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri." — A. O. U. 



Season — Permanent resident ; only locally a migrant at northern 

 limit of range. 



Westward the prairie chicken, like the course of empire, 

 takes its way ; for although it may increase at the pioneer stage of 

 civilization, it halts at the introduction of the steam plough and 

 railroad, to disappear forever where villages run together into cities. 

 Doubtless its range was once far east — just how far is not certain, 

 since the early writers confused it with the heath hen, once 



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