''Tympanuchus'' is a small genus of

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the

grouse Grouse are a group of birds from the order (biology), order Galliformes, in the family (biology), family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the Tribe (biology), tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetr ...

family. They are commonly referred to as prairie-chickens.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Tympanuchus'' was introduced in 1841 by the German zoologist Constantin Wilhelm Lambert Gloger for the

greater prairie chicken The greater prairie-chicken or pinnated grouse (''Tympanuchus cupido''), sometimes called a boomer,Friederici, Peter (July 20, 1989)"The Last Prairie Chickens" ''Chicago Reader''. Retrieved August 27, 2014.（Chinese 中文：帕艺明彩大凤� ...

. The name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''tumpanon'' meaning "kettle-drum" with ''ekhō'' meaning "to have". The genus contains three species: All three are among the smaller grouse, from in length. They are found in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

in different types of

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

. In courtship display on leks, males make hooting sounds and dance with the head extended straight forward, the tail up, and colorful neck sacks inflated (shown in the photograph at upper right). ''Tympanuchus'' comes from

roots and means "holding a drum"; it refers to the membranous neck sacks and the drum-like call of the greater prairie chicken. The two prairie chickens are particularly closely related and look extremely similar. But their taxonomy and the evolutionary relationships of the ''Tympanuchus'' is yet to be discovered. There is still unknown information about these genera. But one thing we do know is that ''Tympanuchus'' are polyphyletic. They have a strong sexual selection (Galla, 2013). They are commonly seen in the North American Prairies (Galla, 2013). The extinct heath hen of the American East Coast, usually considered a subspecies of the greater prairie chicken, has been considered a separate species.

Uses

An Englishman visiting the United States in the 1850s reported that prairie hens taste "like pheasants in flavour, but the flesh is the colour of grouse."

References

* Galla, S. J. (2013). Exploring the evolutionary history of north american prairie grouse using multi-locus coalescent analyses (Order No. 1524962). * * Peterson, Alan P. (Editor). 1999
''Zoological Nomenclature Resource'' (Zoonomen)
Accessed 2007-07-29. * * Bird genera {{Galliformes-stub