THE PRAIRIE HEN. 91 



close and harmonizes so well with the surroundings that she often escapes 

 observation when in plain view. 



Asst. Surg. J. C. Merrill, U. S. Army, found a nest of the Prairie Hen 

 about half a mile from Fort Reno, Indian Territory, on May 20, 1890, which 

 he describes as follows: "The nest was placed in a tussock of tall prairie grass 

 growing on sloping ground on the open prairie. It was composed of dried 

 grass blades, well matted together, and a few feathers from the parent. The 

 nest was open on the northeast side of the tussock, and directly opposite was a 

 narrow opening, or rather a tunnel, through the grass. On the two occasions 

 upon which the bird was flushed from the nest she sat with her head toward 

 this tunnel, through which she left the nest and skulked off. The eggs, four- 

 teen in number, were found in one layer, and arranged without system, the 

 smaller ends pointing in all directions. Incubation was far advanced." 



This set and the female thereof are now in the U. S. National Museum 

 collection. 



Laying begins in the southern portions of its range sometimes as early 

 as the latter part of March, and further north fully a month to six weeks 

 later. Next to the Bob White I consider the Pinnated Grouse one of the 

 most prolific of our game birds, laying from eleven to fourteen eggs on an 

 average to a set; sets of twenty and more eggs have been repeatedly found 

 and are not especially rare. Mr. Horace A. Kline, of Vesta, Johnson County, 

 Nebraska, reports in the Ornithologist and Oologist (August, 1882, p. 150), 

 "that during this year he had seen two nests containing twenty-one eggs 

 each," and gives the average of a large number examined as fourteen. He 

 also states that "one of the most destructive agents to the nests of these valu- 

 able birds is the prairie fire. Many of the stockmen do not burn their hay 

 ground until the middle of May, and so thousands of eggs are destroyed 

 every year. In passing over one of these burned fields I counted five nests 

 containing seventy-eight eggs on about one acre of ground." 



Now and then a nest of this species is found above ground. Probably the 

 bird had lost her first brood and learned wisdom from her former experience. 

 Mr. P. H. Smith, jr., writes me that he found a nest of this species near 

 Greenville, Bond County, Illinois, containing five eggs, on the top of an old 

 hay-stack, 6 feet from the ground. 



Mr. J. W. Preston, of Baxter, Iowa, informs me that a number of years 

 ago he frightened a Prairie Hen from her nest of eggs in a marsh that was sub- 

 ject to overflow; the nest was entirely submerged and the bird was incubating 

 the cold eggs. Not eight feet distant, on a tussock, a Marsh Harrier was 

 caring for her clutch of eggs. Strange neighbors ! 



As a rule but one brood is raised in a season, but occasionally nests with 

 fresh eggs are found in July and even in August, which seems to indicate 

 that now and then a second brood may be reared; if this is actually the 

 case, it is exceptional, unless the first eggs have been destroyed. 



