Aug. 4, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
i 73 
chickens have been seen for many a long year. 
There are three well marked forms of the 
pinnated grouse or prairie hen. The bird 
which is most familiar to sportsmen, however, 
is the ordinary prairie chicken of the Middle 
West, ranging from southwestern Ontario and 
southern Manitoba, in the British possessions, 
south through the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, 
west through eastern North and South Dakota, 
Kansas, Nebraska, the Indian Territory, Louis¬ 
iana and Texas. Southwest of this its place is 
taken by the lesser prairie hen, a slightly smaller, 
paler form, which is found in southwestern 
Kansas, western Indian Territory and western 
and southern Texas. The two western forms 
are essentially similar in habit, being birds of 
the open land: literally, prairie hens, while the 
eastern form inhabits, to some extent at least, 
wooded country, and was formerly found among 
the scrub oaks and pines of Massachusetts, Con¬ 
necticut, Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsyl¬ 
vania and Maryland. Just when this eastern 
form was finally exterminated throughout much 
of its range is not now known. We knew of 
two birds, possibly introduced stock, having 
been killed on Long Island about 1870. It will 
probably never be known when the bird finally 
disappeared over most of its former range. 
While the prairie chicken, like most other 
grouse, is commonly regarded as a non-migra- 
tory bird, and does not migrate in the sense of 
performing long journeys to the south, either 
to avoid the winter cold or to secure a more 
abundant food supply, yet there is with this 
species, as in our opinion with many other 
grouse, a considerable shifting of locality in the 
autumn, and again in the spring. In other 
words, these birds seem to have a winter range 
which is not always the same as that of sum¬ 
mer; and just as the deer and antelope of cer¬ 
tain sections of the Rocky Mountains perform 
migrations of greater or less length in autumn 
and spring, so the prairie chickens of the Mis¬ 
sissippi Valley shift their ground at the approach 
of winter, and make a return journey in early 
spring. It is said that the females alone mi¬ 
grate; an interesting fact, if it is true. 
The pinnated grouse begin to mate early in 
the month of March, and it is then that their 
booming and their dancing take place. This 
was well described years ago in Forest and 
Stream by Judge John Dean Caton, as follows: 
“The spring of the year is the season of court¬ 
ship with them, and it does not last all the 
year round as it does with humans, and they 
do it in rather a loud way, too; and instead of 
taking the evening, as many people are inclined 
to do, they choose the early morning. Early 
in the morning you may see them assemble in 
parties, from a dozen to fifty together, on some 
high, dry knolls, where the grass is short, and 
their goings on would make you laugh. The 
cock birds have a loose patch of naked yellow 
skin on each side of their neck just below the 
head, and above these on either side, just where 
the head joins the neck, are a few long black 
feathers, which ordinarily lay back on the neck, 
but which, when excited, they can pitch straight 
forward. These yellow naked patches on either 
side of the neck cover sacs which they can blow 
up like a bladder whenever they choose. These 
are their ornaments, which they display to the 
best advantage before the gentler sex at these 
love feasts. This they do by blowing up these 
air sacs till they look like two ripe oranges, on 
each side of the neck, projecting their long, 
black ears right forward, ruffling up all the 
feathers of the body till they stand out straight, 
and dropping their wings to the ground like a 
turkey cock. Now they look just lovely, as the 
coy, timid maidens seem to say, as they cast 
side glances at them, full of admiration and 
love. 
“Then it is that the proud cock, in order to 
complete his triumph, will rush forward at his 
best speed for two or three rods through the 
midst of the lovesick damsels, pouring out as 
he goes a booming noise, almost a hoarse roar, 
only more subdued, which may be heard for 
at least two miles in the still morning air. This 
heavy booming sound is by no means harsh or 
unpleasant; on the contrary, it is soft and even 
harmonious. When standing in the open prairie 
at early dawn listening to hundreds of different 
voices, pitched on different keys, coming from 
every direction and from various distances, the 
listener is rather soothed than excited. If this 
sound is heavier than the deep key notes of a 
large organ, it is much softer, though vastly 
more powerful, and may be heard at a much 
greater distance. One who has heard such a 
concert can never after mistake or forget it. 
“Every few minutes this display is repeated. 
I have seen not only one, but more than twenty 
cocks going through this funny operation at 
once, but then they seem careful not to run 
against each other, for they have not yet got to 
the fighting point. After a little while the 
lady birds begin to show an interest in the pro¬ 
ceedings by moving about quickly a few yards 
at a time, and then standing still a short time. 
When these actions are continued by a large 
number of birds at a time, it presents a funny 
sight, and you can easily think they are moving 
to the measure of music. 
"The party breaks up when the sun is 
half an hour high, to be repeated the next 
morning and every morning for a week 
or two before all make satisfactory matches. 
It is toward the latter part of the love 
season that the fighting takes place among the 
cocks, probably by two who have fallen in. love 
with the same sweetheart, whose modesty pre¬ 
vents her from selecting between them.” 
The nest is built among thick grass, if such a 
situation can be chosen, and this often means 
the border of a slough or of a marsh, where 
there is danger that high water may destroy 
the eggs. The burning over of the prairie often 
destroys many nests, and again the spring plow¬ 
ing breaks up a good many. The nest is simply 
made, and is usually unlined, though often a few 
feathers from the bird are found in it. 
Captain Bendire gives the number of eggs 
as from eleven to fourteen, but sets of twenty 
or more have often been found. The eggs are 
incubated for three weeks, or a little longer, 
and the young, as soon as hatched, leave the 
nest and follow the mother. They are rather 
hardy little birds, and after the first few days 
are exposed to few dangers except those of pre¬ 
datory birds and mammals. They are well 
grown by the month of August, and are then 
very gentle, and as they lie well to a dog, are 
easily killed. Somewhat later, however, the 
broods begin to get together, and with the ap¬ 
proach of cold weather the packs grow larger 
and larger, until sometimes they number sev¬ 
eral hundreds. The eggs of the prairis chicken 
vary from cream color to light brown, and are 
often finely spotted with minute dots of reddish- 
brown. Sometimes the markings are larger. 
Often they are entirely unspotted. 
The heath hen, as the eastern form of the 
pinnated grouse is called, is now found only on 
the island of Martha’s Vineyard, in Massa¬ 
chusetts. These birds are strictly protected by 
law, and yet each season some are killed. 
Sportsmen who visit Martha’s Vineyard for the 
summer, and who often go out in search of 
other game, sometimes find it difficult to resist 
the temptation to kill these birds if they get 
up before them. Each man is wholly of the 
opinion that this small remnant of an ancient 
race should be preserved, but reasons that no 
harm will come to the race if he kills a single 
one; but the sum of these units must, in the 
course of a season, amount to a considerable 
number. 
Mr. William Brewster, the ornithologist, has 
devoted considerable time to the study of this 
bird on Martha’s Vineyard, and in 1885 pub¬ 
lished an account of it in “Auk,” from which the 
following paragraphs are taken: 
“They were formerly found at various points 
in eastern Massachusetts, southern Connecticut, 
Long Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania; 
perhaps also southern New England, and the 
Middle States generally. A woodland species, 
inhabiting scrubby tracts of oak and pine. 
* * * The general differences between this 
bird and its western representative, T. ameri- 
canns, are difficult of adequate definition, for 
the reason that they consist largely in shades 
of color rather than in markings. Its small size, 
short tarsus, acutely lance-pointed feathers of 
the neck-tufts, white-tipped scapulars, general 
reddish coloration above and restricted light 
markings beneath, are, however, readily ap¬ 
preciable and apparently constant characters. 
* * * 
“The heath hen (I use the vernacular name 
by which it was known to our forefathers) is 
still common on Martha’s Vineyard, where it 
is mainly, if not exclusively, confined to the 
woods, haunting oak scrub by preference and 
feeding largely on acorns. Being strictly pro¬ 
tected by law, but few are probably killed. I 
am told by one of the Boston marketmen, how¬ 
ever, that he has had as many as twenty from 
the Vineyard in a single season. He also says 
that they average nearly a pound less in weight 
than western specimens, and on this account do 
not sell as readily. 
"The bird is not found on the neighboring 
island of Naushon, despite statements by recent 
writers to that effect, nor is there any good evi¬ 
dence that it ever occurred there. There is also 
no reason to believe that the stock on Martha’s 
Vineyard has been vitiated by the introduction 
of western birds. It is simply the last remnant 
of a once more or less widely distributed race, 
preserved in this limited area partly by accident, 
partly by care. According to the best testimony 
available the colony is in no present danger of 
extinction.” 
In July, 1890, Mr. Brewster made another visit 
to Martha’s Vineyard, and subsequently pub¬ 
lished in Forest and Stream a description of 
the range of this bird, and an account of what 
he learned about it, as follows: 
“Throughout Martha’s Vineyard the heath 
hen (locally pronounced heth’n, as this grouse 
is universally called) is well known to almost 
every one. Even in such seaport towns as 
Cottage City and Edgarstown, most of the 
people have at least heard of it, and in the thinly 
settled interior it is frequently seen in the roads, 
or along the edges of the cover by the farmers, 
or started in the depths of the woods by the 
hounds of the rabbit and fox hunters. 
“Its range extends, practically, over the en¬ 
tire wooded portion of the island, but the bird 
is not found regularly or at all numerously out¬ 
side an area of about forty square miles. This 
area comprises most of the elevated central por¬ 
tions of the island, although it also touches the 
sea at not a few points on the north and south 
shores. In places it rolls into great rounded 
hills and long, irregular ridges, over which are 
scattered stretches of second-growth woods, 
often miles in extent, and composed chiefly of 
scarlet, black, white and post oaks from fifteen 
to forty feet in height. Here and there, where 
the valleys spread out broad and level, are fields 
which were cleared by the early settlers more 
than a hundred years ago, and which still retain 
sufficient fertility to yield very good crops of 
English hay, corn, potatoes, and other vege¬ 
tables. Again, this undulating surface gives way 
to wide, level, sandy plains, covered with a 
growth of bear, chinquapin, and post-oak scrub, 
from knee to waist high, so stiff and matted as 
to be almost impenetrable; or to rocky pas¬ 
tures, dotted with thickets of sweet fern, bay- 
berry, huckleberry, dwarf sumac, and other low- 
growing shrubs. 
“Clear, rapid trout brooks wind their way to 
the sea through open meadows, or long narrow 
swamps wooded with red maples, black alders, 
high huckleberry bushes, andromeda, and poison 
dogwood, and overrun with tangled skeins of 
green briars. 
“At all seasons the heath hens live almost ex¬ 
clusively in the oak woods, where the acorns 
furnish them abundant food, although, like our 
ruffed grouse, they occasionally at early morn¬ 
ing and just after sunset venture out a little way 
in the open to pick up scattered grains of 
corn or to pluck a few clover leaves, of whick 
they are extremely fond. They also wander to 
some extent over the scrub-oak plains, es¬ 
pecially when blueberries are ripe and abundant. 
In winter, during long-continued snows, they 
sometimes approach buildings, to feed upon 
the grain which the farmers throw out to them. 
A man living near West Tisbury told me that 
last winter a flock visited his barn at about the 
same hour each day. One cold, snowy morn- 
