226 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



The Alaskan Blue Grouse. 



BY C. L. ANDREWS, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON. 



A beautiful bird, that the early set- 

 tlers on the Pacific Coast know as the 

 blue grouse, is found along the coast 

 of Alaska. Under different names, as 

 climatic and other conditions vary, the 

 bird is known from northern California 

 to Alaska. Those who have known it 

 in the woods from the Blue Mountains 

 of eastern Oregon to the St. Elias Alps 

 of Alaska for the past fifty years speak 

 of it as the blue grouse. 



It is the size of an average barnyard 

 hen, and of a dark bluish color, vary- 

 ing from almost black to a bluish 

 brown according to the time of year 

 and the nature of the surroundings. A 

 band of lighter blue with a black bor- 

 der is at the end of the tail. The male 

 has on each side of his neck a pouch or 

 gland that he inflates when he sounds 

 his peculiar note in the mating season. 

 These pouches are bare, and in the 

 spring are bright yellow or orange. 



The birds were formerly plentiful in 

 the foothills of the Willamette Valley 

 in Oregon. Forty years ago the boys 

 of the early pioneers hunted them with 

 the muzzle loading: rifles that their 



fathers had brought across the plains, 

 but the increase in population, tne use 

 of improved weapons, and of the 

 trained dogs that came later, have al- 

 most swept the splendid birds from the 

 wooded hills of the Willamette. In the 

 Coast range, in the Cascade moun- 

 tains, and in the Blue mountains ot 

 Oregon, they still live. In the state of 

 Washington they are to be found in 

 the Cascade mountains, in the Olym- 

 pics and in the deep woods of the 

 western part of the state. In Alaska 

 they occupy the land between the 

 coast and the higher Alps where the 

 ptarmigan dwell. 



In the mountain gorges where the 

 spruce and the hemlock grow on the 

 mountainside next the ocean, begin- 

 ning in April, may be heard the deep 

 booming of the bird's love note made 

 when he begins to look for his mate. 

 The first "hooters"' begin on the south 

 side of the mountains, near the upper 

 limit of the evergreen timber. In the 

 scrubby pines, or on the edge of a 

 ledge of moss-covered rock, they will 

 sit every day and send throughout the 

 valley the deep mellow sound that is at 

 once a challenge to their rivals and a 



THE ALASKAN BLUE GROUSE. 



