424 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



it also common on the cast side of the Cascades, as i'ar north as the 49th 

 parallel. 



Dr. Cooper's accmmt ol' these birds is substantially similar to the account 

 given by Dr. Suckley of the fidiginoms. He found it common in most of 

 the forests, esiiecially in the dense s])ruce woods near the coast. It was 

 rarely seen on tlie open prairie. In llir dense woods it was exceedingly 

 difficult to detect. During JVIay, near the coast, and till August, on the 

 mountains, the low looting of tliis Grouse was heard everywhere, sounding 

 something like the cooing of a Pigeon, but iu the same deep tone as the 

 drumming of the Rull'ed Grouse. Dr. Cooper also mentions its remarkable 

 powers of ^■entrilocplism, so that while the bird may be sitting on a tree 

 directly over your head the sound seems to come from places quite remote. 



1 )r Woodhouse states that the Dusky Grouse is found among the moun- 

 tains about Santa Fe, in New Mexico. 



This Grouse was first met with by Jlr. Ridgway on the Sierra Xevada, in 

 the vicinity of Carson City, where it was seen in the possession of Indians 

 who had been hunting on I he mountains. It was found on the East Hum- 

 boldt iMountains, in the month of September, and at that time occurred iu 

 small liocks, consisting chietly of ynuug birds, and probably comjiosed of 

 single families. Afterwards, in the summer of 18G9, it was found in consider- 

 able abundance in Parley's Park, a few miles from Salt Lake City. It there 

 chieily inhabited the copses of scrub-oaks along the lower border of conifer- 

 ous woods. In July it was found in the Uintah Mountains in very great 

 abundance, and for a while formed the chief subsistence of the party. 

 It was there known as the IMountain Grouse. Nothing very distinctive was 

 ascertained in regard to its habits, except that it was said to resemble veiy 

 closely, in manners, the Ruffed Grouse. Its flesh was excellent eating. 



Dr. Suckley, in a series of papers on the Grouse of the United States 

 which were read before the Xew York Lyceum in 1S60, states that this spe- 

 cies proljably extend their range to quite a distance south of latitude 40° 

 along the line of the Rocky ]\Iountains, in New ^Mexico. This writer claim- 

 ed to have met with them near Pike's Peak, in the Cheyenne Pass, and in 

 1853 he found them in great nundsers in Lewis and Clarke's I'ass, west of 

 Fort Benton. He also found them abundantly in Oregon and on tlie slopes 

 of the Cascade and Coast Ranges, extending wherever pine or iir timber 

 occurs, to the very borders of the ocean. The Black Hills, in Nebraska, he 

 gives as their most eastern limit. 



The same author corrects the statements of Douglas as to certain habits 

 of this species. The males are said not to be particrdarly pugnacious, and 

 very rarely forsake the boughs of the pine or fir trees for a rock}- eminence. 

 Tliey feed on berries only during a brief season in autumn, at all other times 

 of the year subsisting upon tlie leaves of the pine and fir, especially 

 those of the Douglas Fir. This food imparts a strong resinous flavor to the 

 flesh of this Grouse, which, however, is not unpleasant, and after a while be- 



