11 Prairie Chicken 
History The sharptail grouse,as well as the true prairie chicken, was 
originally found in northern Illinois. Nelsm (1887) states that a 
covey of 14 sharptails was shot at Waukegan in 1863 or 1864. Ridgeway 
(1895) writing in"Field and Stream" for October 9,1879,says of sharp- 
tail:"In 1840-5 this specie was abundant in southern Wisconsin and north= 
ern Illinois as far south as Chicago,always frequenting the timber, which 
gave it the name of burr-oak grouse." 
Sharptail grouse must have disappeared from northern Illinois 
and southern Wisconsin soon after the Civil War. I was unable to fina any 
old-timers who had any recollection of its occurrence in the state, 
It is,of course, common knowledge that the true prairie chicken 
was once very sbundant in Illinois. Data on the dates of its most rapid 
disappearance might prdve to have value in figuring out what to do to 
perpetuate this species. 
Nelson (1887] says the prairie chicken was "once excessively 
abundant ,now rather scarce within 30 miles of Chicago.Still in large 
humbers on the larger prairies," but decreasing. 
Woodruff (1907) says of the prairie chicken, "now fast disappear- 
ing.They are occasionablly found in the western portion of Cook County, 
Illinois,and in Lake County, Indiana," 
GW Walker (1897) reports the prairie chicken as a canmon res- 
ident in Boone County at that time. 
Musselman (1922) says "found over entire state but becoming very 
uncommon in central western part of the state." 
Lashbrook told me that chickens were plentiful near Beardstown 
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