THE PRAIRIE HEN. 
371 
In such a region bird-life is necessarily present in numerous forms. 
At some of the more typical of these we have already glanced ; but the 
prairie hen, as she is called, a species of grouse, calls for special notice. 
An inhabitant of different and ver}^ distinct districts of the great 
prairie-world, she shows peculiar care in the choice of her residence, 
selecting those places only which correspond in features and produc- 
tions with her mode of life, and never visiting the immense intermediate 
tracts. Open dry plains, thinly besprinkled with trees, or partially 
overgrown with shrub oak, are her favourite haunts. Accordingly she 
is found on the grassy plains of New Jersey, as well as on the brushy 
flats of Long Island; among the pines and shrub oaks of Pennsylvania; 
over the whole extent of the barrens of Kentucky ; on the luxuriant 
prairies of Indiana; and the vast and remote savannahs watered by the 
Columbia. Their selection of these localities would seem to be deter- 
mined by the following considerations : — First, her mode of flight is 
generally direct and laborious, and ill adapted for the labyrinth of 
a high thick forest, crowded and intersected with arms and trunks of 
trees, which would necessitate continual angular evolution of wing, 
or abrupt turnings, to which, says Wilson, she is not accustomed. 
Second, her aversion to ponds, marshes, or watery places, which she 
always avoids — drinking but seldom, and, it is believed, never from 
such places. Third, the nature of her food, which consists of straw- 
berries, huckleberries, partridgeberries, and the small acorn of the shrub 
oak. And, fourth, the low dense bushy thickets provide her with a 
secure asylum, being almost impenetrable to dogs or birds of prey. 
The prairie hen, or pinnated grouse, is about nineteen or twenty 
inches long, and weighs about three pounds and a half The neck is 
furnished with supplemental wings, each composed of eighteen feathers 
— five of which are black, and about eight inches in length, the rest 
shorter and of unequal lengths, but also black, and streaked laterally 
with brown. The head is slightly crested ; and over the eye runs an 
elegant semicircular comb of rich orange, which can be raised or 
lowered at pleasure ; under the eye is a brown streak. All the upper 
parts are mottled transversely with black, reddish-brown, and white, 
while the under parts are of a pale brown, transversely marked with 
