PRAIRIE-CHICKENS. The Eastern prairie-chick en, or pinnated grouse (Tympanuehus Ameri canna), is a trifle larger than the ruffed grouse. The general color of the plumage is rufous, with bars and crossings of black; the tail is short and rounded. The male has neck-tufts of narrow feathers, the largest of which are five inches long; he is more remarkably adorned with two loose pendulous wrinkled patches of skin ex tending along the sides of the neck for two-thirds of its length, capable of inflation with air, and when inflated resembling in bulk, color, and sur face middle-sized oranges. This grouse chiefly in habits dry open districts, from northwestern Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky westward to central Kan sas and the Dakotas. It was at one time abun dant on the Western prairies, but has always be come rare as a district has become cultivated and populous, notwithstanding laws enacted for its preservation. It has almost disappeared from the State of Kentucky, where it was at one time so extremely abundant that children were con stantly employed to prevent its depredations in the cultivated fields, and multitudes were shot and trapped merely to be thrown away. It con gregates in flocks in winter, which break up into smaller parties in spring. The males have many combats at the approach of the breeding season. Their voice is a low 'tooting' or 'booming.' They strut, after the manner of turkey-cocks, with wings let down to the ground, and neck-feathers erected. Certain spots, known as 'scratching places,' seem to be specially appropriated for their displays and combats, and there considerable numbers often meet about daybreak and disperse again after the sun is up. The food of the pin
nated grouse consists of seeds, berries, the buds of trees and bushes, insects, and the like.
A very closely allied species, the American heath-hen ( Trapeauchus cupido), formerly dwelt in favorable localities in the Middle States and southern New England. Long Island and Cape Cod were its strongholds. It was long confounded with the more widely distributed prairie-chicken, and is now extinct, except a small band on Nan tucket Island, which is dwindling away in spite of such protection as can be given them. In 1890 less than 200 were living on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. and in 1900 it was thought that less than 100 remained. See EXTINCT ANI MALS.
The 'prairie-chicken' of the Northwest is more strictly to be called sharp-tailed grouse (Pcdio civics phasianellus), of which there is a northern and a southern race. It is easily distinguished by the extra long middle pair of tail feathers and the darker plumage—clear dusky black above, with no buff about the head. The back is variegated with transverse zigzags of yellowish brown, and there are many white spots on the wings; below, the plumage is white, thickly marked with tri angular spots of drab. The sexes are alike. In the southernmost parts of their range they asso ciate with the prairie-chicken. and vary their habits northward only as their environment changes. The northern vsriety extends from the Saskatchewan Valley to the borders of the Arctic regions.