SITKA GROUSE 119 



now evident that he had been in sight of the sitting female all the time. The 

 nest was in clear open ground and without the slightest cover for the eggs. 

 A depression less than an inch in depth seemed to have been scratched out of the 

 dry, sandy soil and lined rudely with bits of pine bark, a few needles and 

 vegetable trash. Many feathers lay loosely with the eggs. It was a poor 

 excuse for a built nest and was rather a simple resting place for the eggs. 

 I believe the following generalizations can be made. Howard's Grouse nest 

 on Mount Pinos during the first week in May, and full sets will be found before 

 the 15th. The nests are fairly well down on the steep north slope and placed in 

 entirely open ground in sunny spots well covered from the distance by observa- 

 tion trees. Nests ought to be found by search near where hooters are active. 

 In early May the snow banks will eliminate all unlikely ground. As soon as 

 the young are able to walk they are led to the flatter upper slopes of the moun- 

 tain where there is good cover and more food. It is obviously unsafe to at- 

 tempt a statement concerning the number of birds which live on Mount Pinos, 

 but one can say that there are not many and I believe that the number is less 

 than one hundred. 



Eggs. — I saw these eggs in Mr. Pemberton's collection and, as I 

 remember them, they are like certain types of sooty-grouse eggs. He 

 (1928) describes them as follows: 



The five eggs were nearly ready to hatch and the embryos had feathers an 

 inch long. They resemble miniature turkey eggs but with larger spots. The 

 ground color is light buff while the spots are auburn, using Ridgway's Color 

 Standards and Nomenclature (1912). The more prominent spots are 2 and 3 

 millimeters in diameter and one egg has two spots 8 and 10 millimeters in diam- 

 eter. The measurements are 49 by 36, 49 by 37, 50 by 36, 51 by 36, 51 by 37 ; 

 the average is 50 by 36.5. 



Behavior. — The summit and steep slope of Mount Pinos have 

 proved difficult country to hunt on, and late snowstorms, cold rains, 

 and high winds make it very uncomfortable for the collector, even 

 late in spring. Several good collectors have made repeated attempts 

 to get specimens of this grouse without success. The birds seem to 

 be very wild and unusually crafty in avoiding capture. Dickey and 

 van Kossem (1923) say: 



The birds of Mount Pinos display a sagacity in eluding capture that is utterly 

 beyond anything observed by the authors in birds from the central or northern 

 Sierra Nevada. One "hooting" site, in a Jeffrey Pine, was carefully watched 

 on several different occasions during a period of two years, before the bird was 

 located and secured. By contrast, the species in like season in the Sierras is 

 often lacking in suspicion to the point of actual stupidity. 



DENDRAGAPUS FULIGINOSUS SITKENSIS Swarth 

 SITKA GROUSE 



HABITS 



On some of the islands of southeastern Alaska there occurs a race 

 of the sooty grouse in which the females are conspicuously reddish in 



