(PWTE IX.) 
THE PINNATED GROUSE. 
Cupidoxja CUPIDO (L.) Bd. 
That the Pinnated Grouse once ranged over a large portion of 
the Eastern United States where nowit is almost never seen, is 
well known. Early records show that it inhabited large parts of 
New England, New York, and New Jersey in great abundance 
at the time of the discover}’of America, but, unlike the Rutted 
Grouse, it was unable to hold its own against civilization, and has 
wholly disappeared from its former resorts, except that a few are 
said to have been preserved on the islands off the southern coast 
of Massachusetts, and some perhaps yet remain in secluded val¬ 
leys of the Alleghanies east of Central Ohio, whence they extend 
to the dry plains and northwestward to the Upper Missouri. 
Throughout this region it is universally known as the Prairie 
Chicken, and is rightly considered the finest game bird of the 
Alississippi Valley. 
The season for pairing is in March, and the breeding time is 
continued through April and May, During this early mating 
season the males resort to certain localities, called by each others' 
booming voices, and fierce battles take place before their respective 
partners are chosen. This “ tooting" is mainly heard at daybreak, 
and is a peculiar sound, — a sort of sonorous ventriloquism audi¬ 
ble at a vast distance. The apparatus by which the bird is ena¬ 
bled to emit tones so far-reaching and resonant are two extraordi¬ 
nary bags of bright yellow skin, which when at rest hang in loose 
pendulous folds on each side of the neck. But in breeding time 
these bags are inflated with air to their utmost capacity, causing 
the two little pinna of narrow feathers which overlie them to stand 
almost straight out, and seeming like a pair of large oranges sus¬ 
pended to the neck. Meanwhile the bird is strutting about in 
intense excitement and emulation. 
The place chosen for the nest is on the ground, generally amid 
the protection of dense brush ; and there ten or a dozen eggs are 
laid, which closely resemble those of the guinea-hen, When 
hatched the brood seems to be cared for by the mother alone, who 
behaves very much like, a domestic hen as she leads the lively 
chicks about the prairie, or through the dry wooded uplands, 
Their food consists of the fruit of the creeping partridge-berry 
vine covering the sand with its enduring verdure, whortle and 
various other berries, fruits of the heath family, acorns, the seeds 
of various weeds, pine and beech nuts, and all insects not too agile 
to get away, or too 11 mimetic " to escape notice. During the recent 
destructive visitation of countless hordes of grasshoppers upon 
Kansas and Nebraska, the Prairie Chickens grew wonderfully fat 
by subsisting almost wholly upon the pests. In winter they feed 
largely' on buds. The aversion of this Grouse to water is well 
known ; it is not to be found in marshy places, and is never seen 
to drink. But do not hastily conclude that it is able to do without 
water: all that is needful it is able to find in the drops of dew 
which hang from the glistening grasses before the sun has dried 
them or course down the dripping plants alter a shower, and you 
will be unable to induce it to drink in any other way than by 
sprinkling the bars, if you ever keep the bird in a cage. Some¬ 
times the Prairie Hens enter cultivated fields, — plowed land for 
the worms, meadows for clover, grain fields for succulent kernels, 
— but not often nowadays, lor they are learning to he shy of 
men. whose ceaseless pursuit has restricted them year by year to 
narrower and narrower districts, and who soon will exterminate 
them unless stringent measures are enforced with the sanctions of 
law tor their protection. 
September is the proper month in which to shoot Pinnated 
Grouse, and to any one who has tramped the rolling expanse of 
an Iowa prairie, cm some brown bracing autumn day, shooting 
right and left as Don and Bess pointed out the birds, nothing 
which I could write on this short page would seem an adequate 
tribute to the enjoyment. Though straight and even like that 
of the Ruffed Grouse, the flight of the Prairie Chicken is less 
rapid, and it soon ceases beating its wings to float swiftly over the 
two or three hundred yards that usually limit its flight. “On open 
prairie-grounds the highest and speediest rangers are, of course, 
the best dogs over which to shoot the Grouse, as is the case with 
the Scottish red game, provided always that the animal has good 
nose enough to stand them at a long distance and is staunch 
enough to allow the sportsman to come up from a distance, with¬ 
out moving on, or flushing his birds." 
Having much of that spicy quality of wild meat which is be¬ 
loved of epicures, the flesh of this Grouse is in great favor. Forty 
years ago, after they had become scarce in the East, verv large 
prices — eight and ten dollars a pair—used often to be paid for 
them in New York. But now that railway communication with 
the West is so rapid, these birds have become very cheap in our 
markets, and are largely exported to England every winter. 
