436 



ZOOLOGY BIRDS. 



numerous at an altitude of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet; those at the former 

 elevation frequenting the cottonwood groves, while at the latter they were 

 found in the pines only. It is tame and unsuspicious, and when forced 

 to fly, which it does unwillingly, takes to the nearest tree, and then, as if 

 incapable of further effort, stands gazing at the intruder with outstretched 

 neck till brought down by a shot. A nest found June 16 contained seven 

 eggs just on the point of hatching. The site was a peculiar one, being in 

 an open glade, where the grass had been recently burned off. The nest 

 proper was a slight collection of dried grass, placed in a depression between 

 two tussocks ; there apparently having been no attempt at concealment. 

 The eggs are pale yellowish-white, spotted irregularly with reddish brown ; 

 length, 1.95 ; diameter, 1.39. 



A rather common inhabitant of the White Mountains, Arizona. Quite 

 a number were shot in August, and on the 15th Dr. Newberry saw a female 

 with young, probably a second brood. This locality is much farther to the 

 south than the bird was known to range. I once thought that it would be 

 found in the mountains well down to our southern border ; the experience of 

 the past season has not, however, borne out this surmise. I searched carefully 

 for signs of this grouse, both at Mount Graham and in the Chiricahua Mount- 

 ains, close to the border line, but with negative result. On inquiring from 

 the settlers and lumbermen of the mountains if they had ever seen grouse, 

 I was always answered in the negative ; and 1 found the belief general, as 

 expressed by Dr. Coues, that none of the grouse family inhabited any 

 portion of Arizona. As noted above, the Blue Grouse, or " Fool Hen", as it 

 is not inappropriately named by the hunters, is actually a resident of the 

 White Mountains, though bv no means as abundant here as in similar dis- 



O / 



tricts in Colorado. I presume that the thirty-fourth parallel may be con- 

 sidered as marking the southern limit of the species. 



