18 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 
or shoots, 0.55 percent ; flowers, 9.IU percent, and leaves, 15.:20 i^ercent. 
This is only half the amount of similar food taken by the ruffed 
grouse. Naturally the prairie hen is much less fj-iven to l)U(ldinir than 
the ruffed <^a-()use. but it has' been known to i)luck buds of i)()plar. 
elm, pine, aj)})le, dwarf birch {Hcfiihi <jJ(()i(Ji(losa) , and black birch 
{B. lenta). "I have counted more than 50 on a single apple tree," 
writes Audubon," " the buds of ^^hich they entirely destroyed in a few 
hours. * * * They Avere. in fact, looked upon with more abhor- 
rence than the crows are at present in Massachusetts and Maine, on 
account of the mischief they committed among the fruit trees of the 
orchards during winter, when they fed on their l)uds. or while in the 
spring months, they picked up the grain in the fields." This mischief 
was due largely to the abundance of the birds, a condition never 
likely to return. 
The 2)rairie hen shows a marked taste for flowers. A delicate pink 
rosebud had been plucked by a bird shot at Omega. Xebr., in June. 
More than a thousand golden-rod heads Avere found in anothei*. 
Additional composite flowers devoured were Amphiachyris {Amphict- 
ehyris dracunculoides) , sweet balsam {Gnajihaliuin ohtiisi folium), 
and others. The flower and leaf buds of birch and apple also are 
taken. Small green ovaries of RueUla and blue-eyed grass were noted 
in a few cases. These birds eat leaves, including those of the butter- 
cup, everlasting {Anfennaria) , red and Avhite clover, and the interest- 
ing water milfoil {MyriophyJhim), often grown in goldfish globes. 
Food of the Young. 
The economic value of the prairie hen is due mainly to its destruc- 
tion of weeds and hai-mful insects, the latter constituting ahnost the 
sole food of the dov.iiy chick. Unfortunately only two stomachs of 
young birds were to be had for examination. The chicks Avere re- 
cently hatched Texas prairie hens {7\f//ii/)(!iiu(hf/s (uncricanuH att- 
'trateri). They had eaten 1 tree cricket, 5 undetermined caterpillars, 
1 imago of the Aery destructive Angoumois grain moth, 1 leaf beetle 
(Monovcid pinictfcoJJis) , and 19 l*2-spotted cucumber beetles {Din- 
hrotica ]2-}>niict<it<i) , which do not always confine themseh^es to 
cucumbers, but injure more than a dozen other cultivated plants. 
THE HEATH HEN. 
( 'rifiniKunicli lis ciijtidiK) 
The lieath lien. Avhich, to casual vieAv, a})i)ears like a small-sized 
prairie hen, inhabits the sci'ub oaks of the islar.d of Marthas Vine- 
yard, on the coast of Massachusetts. It Avas formerly abundant in 
I 
"Oriiith. Biog:., TI. pp. 401 and 501. 1835. 
