130 
GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 
tail short, rounded; tarsus scantily feathered to toes; toes extensively 
webbed at base. 
KEY TO SPECIES OF TYMPANUCHUS. 
1. Bars of back and rump single, broad and solid black. 
2 Larger .americanus, p. 130. 
2'. Smaller. Coast of Texas. attwateri, p. 131. 
1' Bars of back and rump treble, a brown bar inclosed between two nar¬ 
row black bars. pallidicinctus, p. 131. 
305. Tympanuchus americanus (Reich.). Prairie Hen. 
Adult male. — Upper parts yellowish brown and white, crossed by single 
black bars; under parts white, barred with brown; head deep buff except 
for blackish brown stripes and 
blotches; neck with tufts above 
inflatable air sac, feathers of 
tufts 2.50 or more in length 
with broad rounded tips. 
Adult female: similar, but 
with neck tufts rudimentary. 
Young: upper parts light 
brownish, feathers with con¬ 
spicuous white mesial streaks and large black blotches. Male: length 
18-19, wing 8.60-9.40, tail 4.00-4.30. Female: length 17.50, wing 8.65, 
tail 3.80. 
Distribution. — Prairies of the Mississippi valley from Manitoba south 
to Texas and Louisiana, and west to Colorado, with a general tendency 
toward extension of range westward and contraction eastward. Migrates 
locally north and south. 
Nest. — A slight excavation in the ground among grass and weeds on 
open prairie, sometimes lined with matted grass and a few feathers. Eggs: 
usually 11 to 14, cream, olive, or buffy, sometimes slightly specked with 
darker. 
Food. — Grasshoppers, potato bugs, and various other beetles and in¬ 
sects, besides berries, grain, small seeds, green leaves, and buds. 
The few scared, hunted prairie chickens that remain scattered here 
and there over our great middle prairies are but a poor remnant of 
the abundant flocks that only a few years back feasted through the 
summer on grasshoppers and boomed loudly in spring from every 
lonely hilltop and wide expanse of open country. Perhaps no bird 
offers such tempting sport to hunters as these quick but straight¬ 
flying grouse of the open country, ranging as they do in flocks of 
ten or twelve, lying close for the dogs, scattering as they fly, and 
lighting again on all sides to be worked up and shot by ones and 
twos. When besides their character as game birds their goodly size 
and delicious flavor are considered, it seems little wonder that they 
have been rapidly destroyed. In places they are still fairly common, 
and by wise protection could no doubt be kept from extermination. 
Through the summer months they are quiet birds, nesting in the 
grass and keeping their young well out of sight in grainfields or 
Fig. 204. 
