Talk:prairie chicken

What's a prairie hen?

• Wikipedia redirects prairie hen to their article on prairie chicken, so is it the same thing — or perhaps only a female of the species?
• Chambers 1908 defines it as "a gallinaceous North American bird; the sharp-tailed grouse" (is that one sense defined two ways, or two different birds?).
• And then there are remarks like this, found on Google Books:

• • 2005, Federation of Alberta Naturalists, ‎Fish and Wildlife Historical Society, Fish, Fur & Feathers

    Nuttall also used pinnated grouse and sharp-tailed grouse correctly, but unfortunately applied the common name of "prairie chicken" to both species. No wonder there was confusion with ruffed grouse and sharp-tailed grouse prior to Nuttall's book […]

Equinox ◑ 01:40, 15 September 2019 (UTC)

Presumably it's the better half of a prairie cock or cock of the plains. It's not unusual for such a term to refer to more than one species. DCDuring (talk) 02:03, 15 September 2019 (UTC)

I wonder whether any species of subfamily Tetraoninae in the North America could be called a prairie chicken, not just Tympanuchus spp.. DCDuring (talk) 02:13, 15 September 2019 (UTC)

If you search on "male prairie hen" or "female prairie hen", you'll see that at least some people apply the name to both genders. As for the matter of other genera: most grouse are found in forests or in the mountains. Even the "sage" in the name of some species refers to a habitat in the Great Basin that wouldn't be considered "prairie", even if it is treeless and wide open. I doubt anything outside of Tympanuchus would be called prairie-anything because they're not prairie birds. Chuck Entz (talk) 03:04, 15 September 2019 (UTC)

So it seems. The sharp-tailed grouse used to be in a separate genus, but no more. The pinnated grouse referred to by the Albertans would seem to be a subspecies of Tympanuchus cupido. The vernacular names for the sage grouse, which has mating behavior like that of the prairie chicken, include two with cock in them. I have deepened the entries for Tympanuchus, Tympanuchus cupido (including sound!), and prairie chicken. DCDuring (talk) 03:20, 15 September 2019 (UTC)

I note that many of the translations of prairie chicken (See Tympanuchus cupido at Avibase.) use words that are often used to refer to femals chicken-like birds. DCDuring (talk) 03:41, 15 September 2019 (UTC)