ˈprairie-ˈchicken
A North American grouse found in prairie regions and belonging to one of three species of the family Tetraonidæ, Tympanuchus cupido, T. pallidicinctus, or Pediœcetes phasianellus. Also fig.
| 1840 Picayune (New Orleans) 13 Sept. 2/2 The travelling public will find..a fine table covered with white fish..and prairie chickens. 1851 Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. ii, A dinner at the Planters', with its venison steaks, its buffalo tongues, its ‘prairie chicken’. 1863 Dicey Federal St. II. 144 Dun-coloured prairie chickens whirring through the heather as we drove along. 1893 Westm. Gaz. 1 Apr. 6/1 The prairie chickens (sharp-tailed grouse) meet every morning at grey dawn in companies of from six to twenty. 1949 N. Dakota Hist. Jan. 14 The ‘coo’ of the prairie chicken and the twittering of the meadow⁓lark greet us. 1963 Canadian Weekly 30 Mar. 18/4 In 1945 the prairie chicken, or sharp-tailed grouse, by enactment was made an emblem of Saskatchewan. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 3 July 10/6 He took Nicholson and his gang of cutthroats..and that cute little prairie chicken, Kathleen Lloyd, and made a damned good and entertaining movie. 1978 C. Harrison Field Guide Nests, Eggs & Nestlings N. Amer. Birds 101 Greater Prairie Chicken... Nestling. Precocial and downy. Down pattern like that of the Lesser Prairie Chicken. |