PRAIRIE CHICKEN 



79 



Prairie 



Chicken 



Group 



mating 



at Medicine Bow, Wyoming.) 



The prairie chickens are 

 akin to the common grouse. 

 The group repre- 

 sents a typical 

 scene during the 

 season. The male 

 birds go through most surpris- 

 ing antics in their efforts to 

 attract the females. They in- 

 flate the orange-colored sacs 

 on the sides of their necks, 

 dancing and strutting about 

 and uttering a loud, resonant, 

 booming note. (Reproduced 

 from studies near Halsey, 

 Nebraska.) 



The wild goose is one of the 

 first birds to migrate north in 

 the spring. It nests among 

 the lakes of Canada even 

 before the ice is melted. To 



Wild Goose secure the young birds for this group it was necessary to 

 Group hatch the eggs of the wild goose under a hen, so difficult 



is it to find the young in nature. (Reproduced from studies made at 

 Crane Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada.) 



The grebes are aquatic birds which build their nests in the water. 

 During the incubation period the parent bird usually covers the eggs 

 with grass and reeds when leaving the nest. Nesting at 

 the same lake with the grebes was the redhead, a duck 

 which lays from fifteen to twenty eggs. (Reproduced from studies made 

 at Crane Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada.) 



The loon is justly famed for its skill as a diver, and can swim with 

 great speed under water. Its weird call is a familiar sound on the 

 northern New England lakes. Many loons pass the 

 winter at sea fifty miles or more from land. (Reproduced 

 from studies at Lake Umbagog, New Hampshire.) 



This rocky island thirty miles from shore in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 affords some protection to the sea birds which still nest in great 

 Bird Rock numbers on and in its cliffs, although the colony is a mere 

 Group shadow of what it was even fifty years ago. Seven 



species are shown nesting in the group — the razor-billed auk, Leach's 



Love-making of the prairie chicken. In this 

 position and with orange-like air sacs inflated, 

 he produces a booming sound which may carry 

 a distance of two miles. 



Grebe Group 



Loon Group 



