Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The pinnated grouse, Cupidonia or Tympanuchus cupido, a gallinaceous bird of North America belonging to the family Tetraonidæ or
  • noun the sharp-tailed grouse, Pediœcetes phasianellus columbianus. See cuts under Cupidonia and Pediœcetes.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Never was seen on this side of the big hills a man fit to walk in the tracks of Uncle Sam, so large and good-hearted according to his lights, hard as a grizzly bear for a man to milk him, but soft in the breastbone as a young prairie-hen for all folk down upon their nine-pins.

    Erema Richard Doddridge 2004

  • Many people here call this bird a grouse, and those who have crossed the plains say that it is very much like the prairie-hen.

    The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe

  • The dog-towns, too, disappeared; and, in lieu of these little animals, the prairie-hen boomed at rise and set of sun, and, running through the high grass, furnished ample work for the rifle.

    Wild Life in the Rocky Mountains 1916

  • The Ranger followed the Apache upstream, guessed by some feathers and some drops of blood that one of the outlaws had shot a prairie-hen, and read some hint of the story of the meeting between the woman and the bandit.

    Oh, You Tex! William MacLeod Raine 1912

  • Peter's contention by turning shell-pink even under my sunburn and feeling a warm little runway of pleasure creep up through my carcass, for the homeliest old prairie-hen that ever made a pinto shy, I suppose, loves to be told that she's beautiful.

    The Prairie Mother Arthur Stringer 1912

  • I'm merely a submerged prairie-hen with the best part of her life behind her.

    The Prairie Child Arthur Stringer 1912

  • Now and then they threw up their heads and snorted, and swerved violently when a gopher ran across the trail or a prairie-hen got up.

    The Girl from Keller's Harold Bindloss 1905

  • Now and then a prairie-hen got up, and small animals, like English squirrels, squatted by the trail until the wheels were nearly upon them, and then dived into holes.

    The Girl from Keller's Harold Bindloss 1905

  • "I get wild pigeons and sometimes a wild duck or a prairie-hen."

    The Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Gilbert Parker Gilbert Parker 1897

  • "I get wild pigeons and sometimes a wild duck or a prairie-hen."

    The World for Sale, Volume 3. Gilbert Parker 1897

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