Pierce, on Prairie Chicken in Central Iowa 
103 
fly back; but usually the birds were totally ignorant of the 
trap’s object. 
The trapper was happy when he peered in and saw the trap 
filled with birds. Many of them had become frightened, and 
in trying to escape had run around inside Hie trap and so in- 
jured their necks and wings that they were bleeding profusely. 
Now came the exciting part, for the birds were hard to catch 
and hold. They had an unbelievable amount of strength iu 
their wings and many would fly out of a man’s clutch in spite 
of his best efforts to hold them. 
After the birds were killed, the necks were broken and 
folded under the wing; in this position (they were not dressed) 
they were frozen and then compactly placed in barrels, ready 
for shipping. They brought twenty-five cents each on the mar- 
ket, and a limited amount was also taken by local hotels at 
this price. Mr. Gates says that one winter his brother and lie 
got fifty birds. Some neighbor boys trapped twenty-four in 
one day, he says. The voung and old birds looked so much 
alike that it was next to impossible to distinguish them by ap- 
pearance. A common way to tell was to hold them up by the 
bill and bend the head up or down. If the bill was flexible, it 
was a young bird; if stiff, an adult. 
After the nefarious practice of trapping had gone on for 
some years, laws were passed to prohibit it, but, I am told, 
quite a number were still set away from roads in unfrequented 
places; however, these eventually passed out of existence. 
Only a fair conception of the great numbers of Prairie 
Chickens which were once found here is gained by the state- 
ments of old residents. Mr. Gates says in the early morning 
they would often come in great flocks to the trees along Buf- 
falo Creek and indulge in characteristic music, which he terms 
“ cackling.” * He says the trees would be loaded down : — “ hun- 
dreds and hundreds of them, and oh! how thev would cackle!” 
Every tree in the preferred district would be full of the birds, 
and he has often been at a loss to understand how the trees 
withstood the great weight. After leaving the trees they went 
to the fields and breakfasted on weed seeds, corn and other 
grains if thev were to be had. They used to come around the 
farm buildings in the early hours of morning; the farmer 
could often shoot them off his barn roofs with very little diffi- 
culty. 
* See Oologist, April, 1921, page 40 (Vol. 38, No. 4). 
