The Redwood gazette., 1902-07-09
PRAIRIE CHICKENS DO WELL.
Thriving in Spite Of Natural Foes and
Civilization.

Id ' tleIS Ou Gllt IL ~ II a. VI UuC
west do not hear now the morning
hOOt of the prairie chicken. The
bird makes it, it is said, by n1ating
the sacks upon each side of its
neck and violently expelling the
air. All the hens are nesting and
the cocks are leading the lives Of
bachelors, paying little attention to
their hard working wives.
The prairie chicken has wider
range north and south than any
other of our gallinaceous birds. 1t
runs much further north than the
brown quail, going up to and be-
yond the Canadian line in places,
and it goes as far south as the gulf
line of southwestern Texas, Refugio
county in that State, which is very
far south indeed, furnishes fine
chicken shooting each August and
September to those who know Of it,
but visitors are not many, as there
is not a railroad in the county.
The chicken is also the hardest
of our game birds. and resists long
er man S encrOachmentS than any
other. It's ability in this respect is
not short Of wonderful.
Now and then in the middle west,
in communities which have been
settled for much more than hun
dred wears and have turned the
land into a solid farm. a cOvey Of
chickens can be found year after
after year, not getting any bigger
or any smaller, just holding its own
with wonderful persistancy in spite
of the mass OF guns against it.
The heavy SHOWS OF last viii ter
had no effect in decreasing the crop.
The country which the chicken
affects is country Of great drifts,
Wherever there are drifts are barred
spaces. or spaces lightly covered
and these always furnish food in
some quantities. No temperature
seems to be too low for it and it is
as happy when the thermometer
marks 10 below as when it is in the
! Cos.
The bird does not adapt itself tC
man as we'll as the quail 1t wants
more room and instinctlvely prefers
the prairie to cultivated fields,
though in Nebraska, the Dakotas
| Iowa. Kansas and such States it is
now living in fields from years enc
| to wear S end The great wheat
fields of the Dakotas, in fact, are
only prairies after all, and such
areas are put in corn in the other
States that the chicken finds ample
space.
In nesting even in an open coun
try it will often choose a corn field,
or the edge Of one, selecting some
place which, because of a gully OF
growth of underbrush, is not cult
vated Here, surrounded by the
increasing stalks of corn, it broods
end rears its young, apparently
feeling itself safer, from the fac
that men have broken up the grounC
and will not harm it until the crop
is gathered.
The nest, SO far as secrecy is con
cerned, is placed with skill, being
built of twigs and grasses fiat or
the ground and matching exactly
with it's surroundings. 1t is rare
to discover one except by the acci
dent of flushing the mother birc
from it.
a little more than a month hence
the chicks will be out of the shell
They come rapidly, once they star
and the entire brood will be on it:
legs within twenty-four hours afte
the first shell is cracked.
These little ones display marve
lous capacity to take care of them
selves from the moment they appea
and they grow fast. They give th,
mother some trouble for a day O.
two, but after that are pretty nearl,
able to fend for themselves.
The outlook for prairie chickens
was at one time bad one, but now
owing to the rigidly enforced pro
tective laws. they are more thai
holding their own. In many part
OF Iowa. Nebraska, the Dakotas
Illinois and Indiana shooting wa