FAMILY TetraonidcB 



open spaces where wild berries abound, and 

 where the mixed woods are interspersed with 

 pines and other conifers. It frequents the 

 sides of deep canyons and the edges of the 

 streams in the willow thickets where it re- 

 sorts to drink and to bathe in the backwater of 

 the pools. The sooty grouse is commonly 

 found about the ranches in the hill country, 

 frequently coming into the orchards to pick 

 at the prunes and plums in midsummer. The 

 hooting of the sooty grouse is one of the 

 familiar sounds of the deep woods throughout 

 the year. Although supposed to be a call to 

 its mate it is often heard in the dead of winter 

 when the snow is deep in the hills and the 

 weather at zero point. While hooting it hides 

 in the top of a tall fir or spruce, and the ven- 

 triloquial quality of the notes makes it almost 

 impossible to locate the bird. It sounds like 

 oomp, oomp, oomp, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, beginning 

 slowly and ending rapidly. In the summer 

 the food of the sooty grouse is composed of 

 the various wild fruits and berries to be found 

 in the wooded districts where it lives, to- 

 gether with crickets, grasshoppers and grubs, 

 and in the winter it is said to live almost ex- 

 clusively on the tender buds of fir and spruce 

 which it gathers from the tops of the trees. 

 Its nest is placed on the ground in a thick 

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