DUSKY GROUSE. 4S 



its time in pine forests feeding on needles, buds, and flowers. The 

 yellow pine {Pinus ponderosa) — male flowers, the white fir {Abies 

 co7icoloi'), Abies magnifica, the Douglas fir {Pseudotsiiga mueronata)^ 

 the western hemlock {Tsuga heteroplmjlla) ^ and the black hemlock 

 {Tsuga mertensiana) are among the trees that afford it subsistence. 

 That the blue grouse thus utilizes the foliage of conifers is well known 

 to everybody familiar with the bird. Major Bendire writes that dur- 

 ing the winter its food consists almost wholly of the buds and tender 

 tops of pine and fir branches, refuse bits of which sometimes accu- 

 mulate under a single tree to the amount of a bushel," A blue grouse 

 shot by W. W. Price at Slippery Ford, Cal., when 15 feet of snow lay 

 on a level, had filled its crop with the young leaves of the white fir.'' 

 Plants other than conifers furnish 14.17 percent of the annual food 

 of the species. This material includes red clover leaves, willow 

 leaves, blueberry leaves, miterwort {Mitella breweri), birch shoots, 

 and poplar flower buds. During July, in Montana and Utah, field 

 agents of the Biological Survey have seen the bird feeding on the 

 leaves, buds, and flowers of the Mariposa lily {C alochortus) . It 

 eats also the blossoms of lupine, columbine, and the Indian paint 

 brush {Castilleja). 



The blue grouse is only slightly granivorous. Its seed food 

 amounts to but 4.99 percent of the whole — a proportion small indeed 

 when compared with that of the bobwhite and the crested quails. 

 The species is said by Alexander Wilson to resort to seeds only when 

 other food is scarce.^ At times it visits fields for oats and other grain. 

 It feeds also on pine seeds {Pinus flexilis and other species) . It picks 

 up polygonum seeds {P. polymorpkum and others), is fond of wild 

 sunflower seeds, and has been known to sample false sunflower ( Wye- 

 thia mollis)^ caraway {Glycosma occidentalis) , and the capsules of 

 Pentstemon gracilis. It picks up also the seeds of various species of 

 lupine, and is fond of acorns, including those of the canyon live oak 

 {Quercus chrysolepis) . 



The blue grouse is one of the most highly frugivorous of our gal- 

 linaceous birds. Fruit formed 20.09 percent of the food of the 45 

 birds whose stomachs were examined in the laboratory. Manzanita 

 berries constituted a large part, amounting to 13.48 percent of the 

 total. During the summer and early fall they were eaten in great 

 quantities. The manzanita often forms tangled areas of chaparral 

 and includes a number of species which furnish birds and mannnals 

 an abundant supply of berries. The berries eaten by the blue grouse 



o Auk, vol. 6, p. 33, 1889. 



6 Condor, vol. 3, p. 160, 1901. 



cAm. Oruith., vol. 4, p. 191, 1831. 



