CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 233 



nothing had happened. The furthest west I have seen these birds was 

 25 miles west of Edmonton, Alta. and on the Peace River prairies, 

 Atha. (Spreadborough.) Abundant from Portage la Prairie north- 

 westward to Edmonton, Alta. This bird and the pinnated grouse 

 do not agree well together. (Atkinson.) Very common in willow 

 thickets and other low underbrush near Crane lake, Bear lake, and 

 Cypress hills, Sask. (Bishop & Bent.) 



The prairie sharp-tailed grouse is of comparatively recent in- 

 troduction in Ontario, coming east after the building of the Canadian 

 Pacific railway and occurring at Port Arthur and possibly elsewhere. 

 (/. H. Fleming.) 



Breeding Notes. — ^The nest of this species is placed in the 

 long, rank grass under some tuft that will aid in its concealment, 

 and is usually not far from a tract of brush-land or other cover. 

 It is little more than a slight hollow in the ground, arched over by 

 the grass. The eggs are usually fourteen, but sometimes fifteen 

 or sixteen in number. Immediately before expulsion they are of 

 a delicate bluish-green; on being laid they show a purplish grape- 

 like bloom ; after a few days exposure they become of a deep choco- 

 late brown, with a few dark spots. After a fortnight has transpired 

 they are usually of a dirty white ; this change is partly due to bleach- 

 ing, and partly to the scratching they receive from the mother's 

 bill and feet. (Seton.) Our eggs of this species are exactly the size 

 of the upland plover, being 1.75 x 1.25. 



CXXXIV. CENTROCERCDS Swainson. 1831. 

 309. Sage Grouse. 



Centrocercus urophasianus (Bonap.) Swains. 1831. 



In June, 1895, while the writer was making an examination of 

 the prairie region north of the International boundary between 

 Wood mountain, Sask., on the east and Chief mountain in the 

 west, special efforts were made to map out the range of the sage 

 hen. It had been found in the valley of Frenchman river by the 

 Boundary Commission in 1874, where it was recorded by Dr. G. 

 M. Dawson. On June 14th we went into the "Bad Lands," south 

 of Wood mountain and had the good fortune to come upon about 

 a dozen males where there was a little sage brush (Artemisia cana.) 



