234 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



especially by feeding with grain in severe winter weather, and by cooperating 

 with the sportsman and game warden in enforcing the law. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Tail of eighteen feathers, tarsus feathered to base of toes; side of neck with a tuft of 

 narrow, elongate feathers, largely black, but more or less striped or margined with bufT. 

 Upper parts barred and checkered with black, buff and gray, the tojj of head showing 

 most black and the feathers of crown somewhat elongated to form a crest; chin, upper 

 throat and most of sides of head buffy white; a brown stripe from bill below eye, and a 

 conspicuous dark patch half an inch lower; under parts from throat to tail regularly barred 

 with brown or black and buff or buffy white, the buff deepest on lower neck and chest, 

 the dark bars blackest on sides and flanks; tail-feathers brownish black, narrowly tipped 

 with pure white, and barred with buff in the female, but without bars in the male (except 

 sometimes on middle pair). The female also has the neck tufts much shorter than the 

 male, and is somewhat smaller throughout, but otherwise there is little difference be- 

 tween the sexes. 



Length of male 18 to 19 inches; wing 8.60 to 9.40; tail 4 to 4.30. Length of female 

 17.50; wing 8.60 to 8.75; tail 3.60 to 4. 



126. Sharp-tailed Grouse. Pedioecetes phasianellus phasianellus (Linn.). 



(308) 



Synonyms: Spike-tail, Pin-tail, Prairie Chicken, Blackfoot, Northern Sharp-tailed 

 Grouse. — Tetrao phasianellus, Linn., 1758, Forst., 1772, Gmel., Lath, and others. — 

 PedicBcetes kennicotti, Suckley, 1861. — Ped. phasianellus var. phasianellus, B. B. & R., 

 1875. 



Scarcely to be confounded with any other grouse except the true Prairie 

 Chicken, from which it differs as noted under that species. 



Distribution. — Central Alaska and northwestern British Columbia east 

 through central Keewatin to central western Ungava, and south to Lake 

 Superior and the Parry Sound district Ontario; casual east to Saguenay 

 River, Quebec. (A. O. U. Check-Hst, 1910.) 



Considerable uncertainty has existed with regard to the occurrence of 

 this species within our limits, but the question has been set at rest by the 

 recent expeditions (1904, 1905) from the University of Michigan to Isle 

 Royale* in Lake Superior, w'here this bird was found to be resident and 

 breeding in some numbers. According to Mr. Norman A. Wood, who was 

 in charge of the party which visited Isle Royale in the summer of 1904, 

 "A family of this species was seen at close range by Mr. Ruthven, near 

 Siskowit Bay, Isle Royale, August 29, 1904. The residents told me that 

 the 'Prairie Chicken' hved at Siskowit Bay throughout the year. The 

 large clearing (about 500 acres) about the old mines seems to furnish the 

 favorable conditions for them." 



Three specimens taken on Isle Royale in the summer of 1905 were sub- 

 mitted to the Division of Biological Survey of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture at Washington, and were identified by H. C. Oberholzer as the 

 typical northern form, Pedicecetes phasianellus phasianellus. This of 

 course is just what would be expected, since Isle Royale Hes only eighteen 

 miles from the north shore of Lake Superior. Mr. Peet, who accompanied 

 the 1905 expedition, made the following notes on this species: Found at 

 Rock Harbor and Siskowit Bay by our party and was reported at Wash- 

 ington Harbor by the residents, who called it a pheasant. On July 25 a 

 female accompanied by three young, about half grown, was found in a 



*Isle Royale belongs to Keweenaw county, Michigan. 



