114 BULLETIN 162, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



eept Prince of Wales Island), Queen Charlotte Islands, and Porcher 

 Island ; D. f. sierrae is found from central southern Washington and 

 Fort Klamath, Oreg., south on the inner side of the coast range to 

 Mount Sanhedrin, Calif.; and D. f. howardi is confined to an area 

 in southern California from Mount Pinos east through the Tehachapi 

 Range and north in the Sierra Nevada to about latitude 36° N. 



As stated under Dendragapus o. obscurus, strictly speaking the 

 sooty grouse is nonmigratory, but locally it has a curious vertical 

 migration as it descends into the valleys during the breeding season 

 and retreats to the higher mountains at the end of summer. 



Egg dates. — Washington and Oregon (fuliginosus) : 60 records, 

 April 16 to July 12; 30 records, April 30 to May 22. California 

 (sierrae) : 5 records, April 27 to June 9. California (howardi) : 

 1 record, May 21. Alaska (sitkensis) : 1 record, June 2. 



DENDRAGAPUS FULIGINOSUS SIERRAE Chapman 

 SIERRA GROUSE 



HABITS 



The sooty, or " blue," grouse of the Sierra Nevada and the inner 

 side of the coast ranges, from southern Washington to about latitude 

 31° N. in California, was described by Dr. Frank M. Chapman 

 (1904) as "most nearly related to Dendragapus obscurus, but the 

 nuchal region often browner and usually vermiculated with black, 

 the whole dorsal region less black and more heavily vermiculated 

 with brown and gray ; terminal tail band narrower and more speckled 

 with blackish; the median tail-feathers more heavily marked with 

 gray or brownish ; the scapulars and tertials with the terminal white 

 wedge less developed or entirely wanting; the basally white neck- 

 tufts practically absent; the throat averaging duskier and the feathers 

 of the sides, flanks, and under tail-coverts with much less white. 

 Differs from Dendragapus obscurus fuliginosus in much paler 

 coloration above, in the heavier vermiculation of the entire upper 

 surface, practical absence of neck-tufts, whiter throat, and paler 

 underparts." He says further: 



In spite of the fact that the Sierra Grouse more nearly resembles obscurus 

 than it does fuliginosus it apparently has been derived from the latter rather 

 than from the former. That is, it represents a southern extension of the 

 northwest coast form and not a westward extension of the Rocky Mountain 

 form. 



This theory is supported by the apparent continuity of range of sierrae and 

 fuliginosus and by their evident intergradation in the vicinity of Klamath, 

 Oregon. Several of the specimens, in an admirable series collected by Major 

 Bendire, at Fort Klamath, are referable to sierrae rather than to fuliginosus, 

 though not typical of the former. Other examples in this series, however, 



