SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 21 



light colored and deliciously flavored. After the birds begin to pack 

 they afford little sport to the hunter. 



The sharp-tailed grouse are partly migra4^ory. In winter they 

 take refuge in the highest trees, walking among the branches almost 

 as nimbly as the ruffed grouse. Like the latter, the present species 

 has a habit of plunging into the snow to spend the wintry night. 

 It has many natural enemies in the winter, and in summer the golden 

 eagle has been known to feed its young very largely upon its flesh. 

 Its struggle for existence is unusually severe. Wherever it abounds, 

 in accessible districts, it is j^ursued relentlessly by the sportsman ; but 

 where diminished to a certain point, as on its western and northern 

 ranges, hunting it is largely abandoned. Probably some decades 

 will pass, therefore, before it will be in danger of total extinction. 

 As it does not readily accept civilization, it is not likely to become a 

 popular bird in our growing game preserves, which each year become 

 of greater economic importance. 



FOOD HABITS. 



The food habits of the sharp-tailed grouse have been studied in 

 connection with the present paper by the examination of 43 stomachs. 

 These were collected in every month of the year except January and 

 March ; most of them in Nebraska and the Northwest Territories, but 

 some in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba. The investigations 

 showed that animal matter (insects) formed only 10.10 per cent of 

 the food, while vegetable matter (seeds, fruit, and ' browse ') made 

 89.81 percent. If subsequent study jjroves that these figures apply 

 generally to the species, the sharp-tailed grouse is to be classed among 

 the birds most largely vegetarian. 



INSECT FOOD. 



The insect matter consists of bugs, 0.50 percent; grasshopj^ers, 

 4.G2 percent; beetles, 2.8G percent, and miscellaneous insects, 2.21 

 percent in a total of 10.19 jiercent of the food. Venion Bailey, of 

 the Biological Survey, found that three birds shot by him in Idaho 

 August 29 had eaten chiefly insects, including grasshoppers, small 

 bugs, and small caterpillars. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway state 

 that the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse has been known to feed on 

 caterpillars and other insects that have been scorched by prairie 

 fires." 



The young of the sharp-tailed grouse, like those of other gallina- 

 ceous species, are highly insectivorous. A downy chick from 1 to 3 

 days old, collected on June 27, in Manitoba, by P^rnest Thompson 

 Seton, had eaten 95 percent of insects and 5 percent of wild straw- 



« Hist. N. A. Birds, Land Birds, III, p. 4.30, 1874. 



