142 M?-. Douglas on some Species 



Flesh white, excellent. Pair in April : nest formed of 

 small twigs, leaves, and grass, on the declivities of the 

 sub-alpine hills, in coppices of Corylus and Betula, very 

 generally selecting the vicinity of mountain rills or springs. 

 Eggs 13 to 19, nearly the size of a common fowl's, with 

 large and small red specks. 



Period of incubation three weeks. Food, buds of Finus, 

 catkins of Betula, Alnus, and Corylus, berries of Fragaria and 

 Vaccinium. The voice is a continuation of distinct hollow 

 sounds, Hoo — hoo hoo, like the cooing of a dove. Flight swift, 

 steady, and particularly graceful, making but little buzzing or 

 clapping noise. On being started from the dark shadowy 

 pine-trees, their usual roosting-place, they descend, or, more 

 properly, allow themselves to fall within a few feet of the 

 ground before they commence flying, — a circumstance which 

 often leads the sportsman to think he has secured his bird, 

 until the object of his attention leaves him, darting and float- 

 ing through the forest. This trait appears to be peculiar to this 

 species. No bird is more readily destroyed ; they will sit 

 with apparent tranquillity on the rocks or pine branches after 

 several shots have been fired. 



In spring they are seen in great numbers basking in the sun 

 on the southern declivities of the low hills, and in winter in the 

 neighbourhood of springs, lakes, or large streams, in flocks of 

 sixty or eighty. They are easily captured by small snares formed 

 of sinews of the deer tribe. Very abundant on the sub-alpine 

 regions of the Rocky Mountains in latitude 52" N. longitude 

 115° W. Still more numerous in the mountainous districts of 

 the river Columbia in latitude 48° N., longitude 118° W. 



Rare on the mountains of the north-west coast. I captured 

 several in April 1825, and in the winters of 1826-7 several more ; 



the 



