_Tympanuchus americanus_, the Prairie-hen, found in the districts drained by the Mississippi and its confluents, and thence northwards to Ontario, is brown above, barred with buff and black, and chiefly paler brown below, marked with white. The small crest is tipped with white, and a tuft of long, stiff, black feathers covers the inflatable yellow air-sacs on the sides of the neck, the sacs being absent and the tufts shorter in females. In spring parties assemble after daybreak on dry knolls, and conduct their love affairs after the fashion of the Dusky Grouse (p. 236), a booming noise being audible from afar, and the skin of the neck being expanded below the erected tufts. The cocks are most pugnacious when the pairing-time is nearly over. Shoots of plants, berries, grain, acorns, and insects constitute the food. The flight is powerful and rapid, but individuals often run and squat. For a Grouse the nest is considerable; and from eleven to fourteen, or even twenty, creamy or olive-coloured eggs are deposited, with very small reddish-brown spots. _T. cupido_, the Heath-Hen of the eastern United States, now only found on the island of Martha's Vineyard, off Massachusetts, has smaller neck-tufts of pointed feathers, and more conspicuous whitish marks on the scapulars. _T. pallidicinctus_, the Lesser Prairie-Hen, ranging from Texas to Kansas, is barred with brown, margined on each side with black. _Dendragapus obscurus_, the Dusky, Blue, or Pine-Grouse of the Rocky Mountain districts, has black upper parts mottled with grey and a little brown, and pure grey under surface; the female having a considerable admixture of buff, and the male possessing air-sacs like those of _Tympanuchus_. A darker race, _D. fuliginosus_, extends the range to Sitka and California. Another northern form, which lacks the broad grey tail-band, is termed _D. richardsoni_. These birds frequent wooded ravines up to nine thousand feet, preferring the neighbourhood of water, and feeding as do their allies. The characteristic booming noise, common to this species and others, may be heard throughout the day in spring, the male {236}choosing some horizontal bough or convenient spot of ground whereon to display himself with drooping wings, expanded tail, and inflated air-sacs. Rarely can an observer gain a view, so misleading is the ventriloquistic effect of the sound. The nest, commonly placed beneath a branch or near a tussock, is a mere depression in the soil lined with herbage, leaves, or fir-needles. The eight to twelve eggs are creamy-buff, with round brown dots.