The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1865-07-15
The Prairie Hen.
ITS CHARACTER AND HABITS.
Danger Of Its Extinction.

The prairie hen, or pinnatsd grouse ca
pidondi cupido) will soon become extinct un-
less steps are taken for its protection, where
alone it is now common, upon the prairies of
the west. Ten years more of indiscriminate
slaughter will make thesebeutiful tirds almost
as rare upon the prairies of Illinois as they
are upon Long Island, where they were once
equally plenty, but are now nearly extinct
The following is Baird's description of Gu
pidonia cupido:
General color OF the upper parts brown. trans
versely barred with blacklist brown; wings lighter
brown; primaries grayish brown, with spots OF
reddish yellow on the outer webs. Tail felthers
purpish brown, the two middle ones lighter and
notified with brOwnish black. Loral space and
throat, light buff. The long feathers ofthe neck
are yelowish red dark brown the webs.
Under parts white, marked with broad curved
bands arranged in regular series ,ot graysh brown,
under tail coverts white, crossed with brown and
margIned with black. Membrane over the eve
and gular sack, orange yellow. Feathers of the
legs gray ,mnutely banded with yelowish brown.''
Wilson gives the three following reasons
why they prefer al open dry plain, shaded
by a few trees, like the "oak openings" Of
Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, or reg. IONS
only partially covered with small bushes in
stead of thick forest land or swamps for their
"First, their mode of flight is generally direct
and laborious, and i'll calculated for the labyrinth
of high and thick forrest crowded and Intersect-
ed with the trunks and arms of trees that require
continual angular evolution of wings or sudden
turnings, to which they are by no means accus-
toned.
SECONDLY, their known dislike of ponds marsh
es and watery places, which they avoid on all
occasions, drinking but seldom, and il is belie,-
ed, never from such places.
''The last, and probably the strongest induce-
ment to their prefering these plains, is the small
of the shrub oak, the straw berries, buckle
berries and partridgeberries with which they
abound and which constitute the principal part Of
the food ofthese BIRDS These bushy thick cts also
afford them excellent shelter being almost impen-
etrable to dogs or birds of prey.' ~
The wholesale manner of their destruction
may be understood from the fact that they
are often received in such quantities in New
York as to be only worth from 20 TO 40 cents
a piece, and we have known tons of them to
spoil on the hands of the dealers. We re-
member when a common price for them in
Indiana and Illinois was from six to twelve
cents each, and we have seen them sold
ready for the table, within thirty years past,
less than forty miles from Chicago at 373
cents per dozen.
The richness of the prairie soil and abup-
dance of prairie hens have been looked upon
as so great that they were perfectly mex
haustible. Probably some of the destrovers
of both will live to learn the error of this
opinion. When the prairies fest began to be
settled, the birds actually increased faster
than they did when there were no farms.
roads. or other improvements to check the
sweeping prairie fires. But as the country
becomes more extensively settled the birds
not only ind their des.royers increase but
the difficulty of selecting suitable nesting
places. great many farmers, toe, look upon
them as enemies because they come late in
autumn upon the corn-shock and wheat-stacks
for few scattering grains which the farmer
should not begrudge animals which add 40 |
much to the beauty of the landscape. One
of the most remarkable peculiarities of
the prairie hen is its ability to make |
singular footing noise by means of
the two bags of yellowish skin which |
hang upon each side of the neck. and
are covered by little featnered wings. When
excited these wings are raised. the sacs are
inflated and exposed to view. and are then
OF q rich golden color. 1t is by filing and
exhausting these sacs that the footing sound
peculiar to theee birds is made particularly
during the coupling season, in the spring Of
the year. when males and femals meet in
considerable numbers upon some smooth
piece OF ground and perform their singular
ceremonies OF oourtship, marching, and toot-
ing, and strutting round and round by the
hour It's very singular that q person who
hears these tootiugs can seldom tell whether
the birds are within forty rods or two miles