104 



300b. Bonasa umbellus umbelloides (Dougl.). [473a.] Gray Buffed Grouse. 



This is a bird of the Bocky Mountain region and western British 

 America. Mr. Kidgway 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. I^ash, who states that it visits Lake Mani- 

 toba every winter. 



305. Tympanuchus americanus (Reich.). [477.] Prairie Ren; 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 1881 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 

 line.f 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 Col man county, 

 a little 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. 7 ' (Bull. Nut. Ornith. Club, 

 Vol. YII, 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, hut 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 one or two places, but saw none myself. In the fall of 1884 it 



* Ernest E. Thompson in The Auk, Vol. Ill, 1886, p. 153. 

 t Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, Vol. V, 1880, p. 18. 



