110 BULLETIN 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



tensiana) are among the trees that afford it subsistence. Plants other than 

 conifers furnish 14.17 percent of the annual food of the species. This material 

 includes red clover leaves, willow leaves, blueberry leaves, miterwort (Mitella 

 breweri), birch shoots, and poplar flower buds. During July, in Montana and 

 Utah, field agents of the Biological Survey have seen the bird feeding on the 

 leaves, buds, and flowers of the Mariposa lily (Calochortus) . It eats also the 

 blossoms of lupine, columbine, and the Indian paint brush (Castilleja) . 



At times it visits fields for oats and other grain. It feeds also on pine seeds 

 (Pinus fiexilis and other species). It picks up polygonum seeds (P. poly- 

 morphum and others), is fond of wild sunflower seeds, and has been known to 

 sample false sunflower (Wyethia mollis), caraway (Glycosma occidentalis) , 

 and the capsules of Pentstemon gracilis. It picks up also the seeds of various 

 species of lupine, and is fond of acorns, including those of the canyon live oak 

 (Quercits chrysolepis) . 



Among the berries eaten he includes manzanita berries (13.48 per 

 cent of the whole), bear berries, gooseberries, huckleberries, service- 

 berries, salmon berries, and the fruits of red elder, honeysuckle, 

 cherries, mountain-ash, salal, and currants. 



Mr. Bowles writes to me : 



In the examination of a great many stomachs of this grouse I have invariably 

 found the contents to be 100 per cent vegetable, with no signs of animal food 

 of any kind. Green leaves of different kinds form at least 75 per cent of their 

 diet, such as grass, ferns, kinnikinnick, etc., with different small berries next, 

 while one was packed with dry green peas. This diet continues from about the 

 first of April until the end of October, when the only food of any kind that I 

 have found consists of the tips of green fir sprouts of the Douglas fir. As with 

 the rest of the family, small gravel is swallowed to aid in grinding up the food. 



Behavior. — When rising from the ground in the open clearings in 

 its summer haunts the sooty grouse flushes with a loud whirring of 

 wings, like other grouse, and flies directly away across the clearing to 

 the nearest timber, with a strong steady flight. It usually alights 

 in a tall, thick, coniferous tree, where it stands so still that it is not 

 easily seen ; it crouches down on a limb lengthwise or huddles against 

 the trunk, where its colors match its surroundings so perfectly that 

 it is easily overlooked ; only the keenest, practiced eyes can discover it. 

 If flushed from a tree on the mountainside, where it is usually found 

 in fall and winter, it sails downward on silent, extended wings and 

 disappears in the forest below. 



In regions where these grouse have not been hunted much they are 

 tame, almost to stupidity, the young birds particularly; it has been 

 said that, when a number are perched in a tree, several of them may 

 be killed, if the lowest one is shot first, before the others take flight ; 

 this must be unusual, however. Even where they have been hunted, 

 they are not nearly so wary or so resourceful as the ruffed grouse. 

 They seem to feel particularly safe in the tops of the tall fir trees, 

 where it is sometimes difficult to flush them even by shooting at them. 

 The males during the mating season are quite unconcerned, even in 



