Part 102

Their nests were found, by Douglas, on the ground, under the shade of Artemisia, or when near streams, among Phalaris arundinacea, and were carefully constructed of dry grass and slender twigs. The eggs are said to be as many as from thirteen to seventeen in number, and the period of incubation to be twenty-one or twenty-two days. The young leave the nest soon after they are hatched.

In the winter these birds are said to be found in large flocks of several hundreds, in the spring in pairs, and later in the summer and fall in small family groups. They were abundant throughout the barren amid plains of the Columbia and in Northern California, but were not met with east of the Rocky Mountains.

Dr. Newberry regards this Grouse, when in full plumage, as rather a handsome bird, and much better looking than any figure he has seen of it. It is much the largest of American Grouse, weighing from five to six pounds. The female is much smaller than the male, and is of a uniform sober-brown color. The male bird has a distinctive character in the spaces of bare orange-colored skin which occupy the sides of the neck, and are usually concealed by the feathers, but may be inflated to a great size. The species was not found in the valleys of California, but belongs both to the fauna of the interior basin and to that of the Rocky Mountains, the dry desert country lying on both flanks of this chain. He first found it high up on Pit River, and once came suddenly upon a male in an oasis near a warm spring, which started up with a great flutter and rush, and, uttering a hoarse hek-hek, flew off with an irregular but remarkably well-sustained flight, which was continued until the bird was out of sight. In searching around he soon found its mate, which rose from under a sage-bush with a noise like a whirlwind. This specimen was secured, and these birds were afterwards found to be quite abundant, but very strong-winged and difficult to kill. It was no uncommon thing, Dr. Kennerly states, for him to pour a full charge of shot into them at a short distance, dislodging a quantity of feathers, and yet to have them fly off to so great a distance before they dropped that he could not follow them. He found them only in the vicinity of the sage-bushes, under which they were usually concealed. He afterwards saw them very abundant on the shores of Wright and Rhett Lakes. In one instance he observed a male bird to sink down on the ground, as the train approached, depressing its head, and lying as motionless as a stick, which it greatly resembled. As he moved towards it, the bird lowered its head until it rested on the ground, and made itself as small as possible, and did not rise until he had arrived within fifteen feet of it. West of the Cascade Range it did not occur, and all its preferences and habits seemed to fit it for the occupancy of the sterile region of the central desert. Its flesh is dark and highly flavored with the wormwood. The young, if parboiled and stewed, are said to be quite good; but, on the whole, this Grouse is inferior for the table to any other American species.

Dr. Cooper gives this bird as common in Washington Territory, on the high barren hills and deserts east of the Cascade Mountains, and limited in its range by the growth of the Artemisia tridentata, the leaves of which shrub seem to be the principal part of its food; the flesh tasting so strongly of it as to be unpalatable. He saw none north of the Spokane Plains, the country being apparently too woody. On those plains they were very common. He describes its flight as more heavy and less noisy than that of most Grouse, and when they are started, it commonly extends a long distance before alighting.

Dr. Suckley found the Sage-Cock abundant on the plains of Oregon, near Snake River, on both sides of the Blue Mountains, as also along the line of the Columbia, on the open plains, and on the sage barrens of the Yakima and Simcoe Valleys,—in fact, wherever the artemisia was found. The leaves of this shrub either are preferred or are necessary to its existence, for no other food was found in their full stomachs, even in localities where abundance of grass-seed, wild grain, grasshoppers, and other kinds of food, might be found. This species has apparently the power of going a long while without water. Lieutenant Fleming informed Dr. Suckley that he found them about twelve miles west of Fort Laramie, but they were not seen east of that point so far south. In August, 1853, one was procured about two hundred miles east of the Rocky Mountains. He also observed a small flock on the plains bordering on Milk River, in Nebraska. Near Soda Lake, the sink of the Mohave River, Dr. Cooper met with it, which is without doubt the most southern point at which it has been discovered. Dr. Coues has never met with it in Arizona.

Mr. Ridgway encountered it everywhere in the Great Basin where there was a thrifty growth of the artemisia, which appears everywhere to regulate its existence. He corroborates the accounts given of its heavy, lumbering flight; and when it has once escaped, it flies so far that the sportsman rarely has a second opportunity to flush it. It rises apparently with great effort. He was told by the settlers of Nevada and Utah that the Sage-Hen was never known to touch grain of any kind, even when found in the vicinity of grain-fields. This is attributed to a very curious anatomical peculiarity of the species,—the entire absence of a gizzard; having instead a soft membranous stomach, rendering it impossible to digest any hard food. In a large number of specimens dissected, nothing was found but grasshoppers and leaves of the artemisia.

Two eggs in my cabinet, from Utah, measure, one 2.20 by 1.50 inches, and the other 2.15 by 1.45. They are of an elongate-oval shape, slightly pointed at one end. Their ground-color varies from a light-greenish drab to a drab shaded with buff. They are thickly freckled with small rounded spots of reddish-brown and dark chestnut.

GENUS PEDIŒCETES, BAIRD.

Pediœcetes, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 625. (Type, Tetrao phasianellus, LINN.)

Pediœcetes phasianellus.]

GEN. CHAR. Tail short, graduated; exclusive of the much lengthened middle part, where are two feathers (perhaps tail-coverts) with parallel edges and truncated ends half the full rounded wing. Tarsi densely feathered to the toes and between their bases. Neck without peculiar feathers. Culmen between the nasal fossæ not half the total length.

Species and Varieties.

=P. phasianellus.= Above variegated with transverse spots of yellowish-brown and black; wing-coverts with large, roundish white spots; outer webs of primaries with quadrate white spots. Beneath white anteriorly and along the sides, with V-shaped marks of brown or dusky. Sexes alike in color and size.

Above blackish-dusky, variegated transversely with yellowish-brown; scapulars with broad white medial longitudinal streaks of white. Markings below clear, uniform blackish-dusky. Toes entirely hidden by the long hair-like feathers of the tarsus. Head and neck with the ground-color white, the throat heavily spotted with dusky. Hab. British America to Arctic regions …

var. phasianellus.

Above yellowish-brown, mixed with reddish, and variegated transversely with black; scapulars without white longitudinal spots. Markings beneath clear pale brown, with dusky borders. Toes entirely bare. Head and neck deep buff, the throat not spotted. Hab. Prairies and plains of northern U. S., from Wisconsin and Illinois to Oregon …

var. columbianus.

1. Pediœcetes columbianus. Missouri Plains, 4543. 2. Centrocercus urophasianus. ♂ Nebraska, 12561. 3. Pediœcetes phasianellus. Hudson’s Bay, 32319. 4. Centrocercus urophasianus. ♀ Nebraska, 11349.]

Pediœcetes phasianellus, var. phasianellus, ELLIOT.

SHARP-TAILED GROUSE.

Tetrao phasianellus, LINN. S. N. I, (ed. 10,) 1758, p. 160.—FORST. Phil. Trans. LXII, 1772, 394, 495.—GMEL.—LATH.—Bon. Comp. List.—SABINE.—EDWARDS.—RICHARDSON. Centrocercus p. G. R. GRAY, Cat. B. Brit. Mus.—BON. Compt. Rend.—? SWAINS. F. B. A. (in part?). Pediœcetes p. (not of BAIRD, Birds N. Am.)—ELLIOT, P. A. N. S. Philad. 1862, 402–404.—IB. Monog. Tetraoninæ, pl.—Murray, Edinb. Phil. J. 1859 (Trout Lake Station).—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Chicago Ac. I, 1869, 287.—GRAY, Cat. Brit. Mus. V, 1867, 88. Tetrao urogallus, var. β, LINN. S. N. I, (ed. 12,) 273. Pediœcetes kennicotti, SUCKLEY, P. A. N. S. Philad. 1861.

SP. CHAR. Prevailing colors, clear dusky-black above, and pure white beneath; no buff about the head. Upper parts variegated with transverse, rather zigzag, spots of yellowish-brown; scapulars with broad, elliptical, longitudinal medial spots of pure white; wing-coverts with large rounded, and outer webs of primaries with smaller and more quadrate, spots of pure white. Breast thickly covered with broad V-shaped, and the sides with less numerous sagittate, marks of uniform clear slaty or dusky. Legs densely feathered, the long hair-like feathers reaching beyond the claws, and completely hiding the toes. Throat thickly spotted with dusky. No appreciable differences in plumage between the sexes. Male (31,616, Fort Resolution, Dec. 1862; J. Lockhart). Wing, 8.60; tail, 4.50, the two middle feathers one inch longer.

HAB. British America, from Hudson’s Bay Territory, south to northern shore of Lake Superior, and west to Alaska and British Columbia.

HABITS. The Arctic form of the Sharp-tailed Grouse is found throughout the Arctic regions, from Alaska southward and eastward to an extent not fully ascertained. Mr. Dall states that this variety is not uncommon at Fort Yukon, where Mr. Lockhart found it breeding and obtained its eggs. It has also been seen some two hundred miles down the river, but it is said not to be found below the cañon known as the Ramparts. Captain Ketchum, in his adventurous winter trip from Nulato to Fort Yukon, is said to have killed several of these birds. Specimens are in the Smithsonian Museum from Moose Factory and elsewhere along the southern part of Hudson’s Bay, and it is said to be abundant about Nipigon Lake, north of Lake Superior.

Mr. Kennicott found the nest of this bird at Fort Yukon, at the foot of a clump of dwarf willows. It was in dry ground, and in a region in which these willows abounded and were quite thickly interspersed with other trees, especially small spruces, but no large growth. The nest is said to have been similar to that of Cupidonia cupido. Mr. Lockhart also found it breeding in the same region. The nests seen by him were likewise built on a rising ground under a few small willows.

Richardson assigns as the northern limit of this species the region of the Great Slave Lake, latitude 61°, and as its most southern point latitude 41°. It was found in abundance on the outskirts of the Saskatchewan plains and throughout the wooded districts of the fur countries, frequenting the open glades or low thickets on the borders of lakes, especially where the forests have been partially cleared; perching on trees in the winter, but keeping to the ground in the summer; and, at all seasons, met with in small flocks of from ten to sixteen. They are said, early in spring, to select some level place, where a covey meets every morning and runs round in a circle of about twenty feet in diameter, so that the grass is worn quite bare. If any one approaches this circle, the birds squat close to the ground; but if not alarmed by a too near approach, they soon stretch out their necks to survey the intruder, and resume their circular course, some running to the right and others to the left, meeting and crossing each other. These “partridge-dances” are said to last a month or more, or until the female begins to incubate. This Grouse rises from the ground with the usual whirring noise, and alights again at a distance of a few hundred yards, sometimes on the ground or on the branches of a tree. In winter they hide in the snow, and make their way with ease through the loose drifts, feeding on the buds of the willows, larches, aspens, etc. In summer and autumn their food is principally berries. They are said to lay about thirteen eggs early in June; the nest being on the ground, formed of grasses lined with feathers.

The eggs of this variety closely resemble those of the columbianus, but are generally of a decidedly darker ground. They average 1.75 inches in length by 1.28 in breadth. Their ground is a dark tawny-brown minutely dotted with darker spots of brown.

Pediœcetes phasianellus, var. columbianus, BAIRD.