While at work yesterday I got a bulletin from the home front.

Seems our Labrador, Bessie, cornered a medium-sized ("bigger than a pigeon") brown bird up against the fence in the back yard. My wife rescued it and released it out front, whereupon it ran off across the lawn.

What sort of brown flightless birds inhabit the region? Is this a rare prairie chicken sighting? If this species is not endangered, is it tasty?