132 GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 



KEY TO SPECIES OF PEDICECETES. 



1. Ground color buffy g-rayish columbianus, p. 132. 



1'. Ground color rusty or yellowish brown . . . . campestris, p. 132. 



308a. Pedioecetes phasianellus columbianus (Ord). Co- 

 lumbian Sharp-tailed Grouse. 



Adults. — Upper parts grayish brown, with black and buffy markings ; 

 under parts butfy or clear whitish, white or buffy prevailing- in feathers 

 with V-shaped markings. Young : similar to adult female but grayer, and 

 throat white. Length: 1.5-19, wing 8.50-9.00, tail 4.00-5.50. 



Distribution. — Breeds in northern part of Great Basin region, east to 

 Montana and Wyoming, and north from Utah, Nevada, and northeastern 

 California to central portion of Alaska. 



Nest. — A hollow in the ground, lined with dried grass and feathers. 

 Eggs: 11 to 14, creamy buff to olive brown, usually lightly spotted with 

 reddish brown. 



Xowhere so abundant as the pinnated grouse, the sharp-tailed has 

 a wider range over more unsettled country and will probably last 

 longer, especiall)^ in the northern part of its range. While a prairie 

 or plains bird, it is usually flushed from a berry patch, low bushes 

 beside a creek, a stubble field, or sagebrush. Its finely mottled 

 plumage makes it very inconspicuous, and its tendency is to lie low 

 and be flushed at fatally close quarters. 



Though the grouse usually keep well hidden in summer, in winter 

 when their plumage has become dense and their feet and legs rabbit- 

 like, they may be seen crossing the fields on top of the snow or get- 

 ting their breakfast of buds from the tops of trees and tall bushes. 

 When the weather is cold and the snow deep and soft they often 

 roost under the snow like the ruffed grouse, and come out in the 

 morning fifteen or twenty feet from where they entered the white 

 surface at night. 



In spring the males have a loud cackling note, besides a scraping 

 sound produced apparently by opening and closing their rigid tail 

 feathers. Vernon Batley. 



308b. P. p. campestris Bidgw. Prairie .Sharp-tailed Grouse. 

 Similar to fC(/u?«i/aH?/.'s\ but ground color much lighter, prevailing shade 



rusty or yellowish brown ; under 

 parts mainly whitish, and dark 

 breast wa.shed with whitish. 

 '*'''' Distribution. — Breeds on 

 plains and prairies in Transi- 

 tion and Upper Sonoran zones 

 from Manitoba south to New 

 Mexico, and from Wisconsin 

 and Illinois west to the Rocky 

 Mountains. 



Fig. 205. 



Nest. — A slight hollow in the gromid. arched over by grass. Eggs: 

 usually 14, bluish green with a purplish bloom when first laid, afterwards 

 chajiging to dark chocolate with a few dark spots, and fading to white. 



