Page 47 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

CANDIDATES FOR OBLIVION
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l-rom the "American Natural History"
PINNATED GROUSE, OR "PRAIRIE CHICKEN"
The Pinnated Grouse, Sage Grouse and Prairie Sharp-Tail.— In view of the fate of the grouse of the United States, as it has been wrought out thus far in all the more thickly settled areas, and particu- larly in view of the history of the heath hen, we have no choice but to regard all three of the species named above as absolutely certain to become totally extinct, within a short period of years, unless the condi- tions surrounding them are immediately and radically changed for the better. Personally,Idonotbelievethatthegunnersandgame-hogsof Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Cali- fornia will permit any one of those species to be saved.
If the present open seasons prevail in the states that I have men- tioned above, no power on earth can save those three species of grouse fromthefateoftheheathhen. To-daytheirrepresentativesexistonly in small shreds and patches, and from fully nineteen-twentieths of their original ranges they are forever gone.
The sage grouse will be the first species to go. It is the largest, the most conspicuous, the one most easily found, and the biggest mark for thegunner. Thosewhohaveseenthisbirdinitsnativesage-brushwell understand how fatally it is exposed to slaughter.
Many appeals have been made in behalf of the pinnated grouse ; but theopenseasonscontinue. Thegunnersofthestatesinwhichafew remnants still exist are determined to have them, all; and the state legislatures seem disposed to allow the killers to have their way. It