GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 
131 
berry patches. In winter, flocks of sometimes a hundred or more 
wary old birds gather together, but they light in the treetops to 
inspect the horizon for danger before settling down to breakfast in 
the cornfield, or else fly from their soft beds of snow to some big 
open field where there is not so much as a bush or stick to hide a 
lurking enemy. As the snow gets deeper it only brings them up 
nearer the berries, haws, and buds, which furnish the bulk of their 
winter food. When the snow hardens to a rigid crust and a few 
patches of bare ground appear you hear just at sunrise a low boom¬ 
ing sound, perhaps a mile away, answered by one after another of 
the awakened cocks. This will be heard for hours every morning 
from the last of February till the first of May in the grouse country, 
for then the birds are having their famous dances. A few cocks and 
hens gather on a frozen lake or the open prairie, and the males fight 
and strut and boom in ardent rivalry before the apparently uncon¬ 
cerned females. They inflate the orange air sacs on each side of the 
neck, spread the yellow fringe over the eyes, and with widespread 
tail, drooping wings, erect neck tufts, and lowered head emit the air 
with the low booming sound. The booming is kept up throughout 
the breeding season. It is a most deceptive sound, at twenty feet 
often seeming far aw'ay, and at a long distance sounding close by. 
Vernon Bailey. 
305a. T. a. attwateri (Bend.). Attwater Prairie Hen. 
Similar to T. americanus , but smaller and darker; usually more chestnut 
on the neck; wing coverts with smaller, more tawny spots; tarsus more 
scantily feathered, feathers never reaching base of toes; in summer, greater 
part of tarsus naked; in winter, stripe of bare skin on back of tarsus. 
Distribution. — Coast districts of southwestern Louisiana and Texas. 
307. Tympanuchus pallidicinctus Ridgw. Lesser Prairie 
Hen. 
Like the prairie hen but paler, and bars of back in threes, a wide brown 
bar inclosed by two narrow black bars. Male: wing 8.20-8.30, tail 4.00- 
4.20. Female: wing 8.00-8.20, tail 3.50-4.00. 
Distribution. — Eastern edge of the plains, from Kansas south to 
western Texas. 
Nest. — On ground in meadows or other open situations. Eggs: 8 to 12 
or more, grayish, olive, or buffy, usually plain, but sometimes spotted with 
darker. 
GENUS PEDICECETES. 
General Characters. — Head lightly crested, a naked patch over each 
eye; neck without obviously peculiar feathers, but with a hidden patch of 
distensible skin, reddish in the breeding season, over which lies a series of 
slightly enlarged feathers; feet feathered to the toes; toes with a con¬ 
spicuous fringe of horny processes in winter; tail much shorter than wings, 
graduated, feathers square at tips, the middle pair projecting much beyond 
the rest. 
