SOOTY GROUSE 107 



Why the ants did not molest her is beyond comprehension, as they certainly 

 nearly ate us alive while we were examining and photographing. The eggs 

 varied from addled to slightly advanced in incubation, so it would be difficult 

 to judge when the last one was laid. 



Bendire (1892) gives an interesting account of a "most exposed 

 nest, without any attempt at concealment whatever," at an eleva- 

 tion of 6,800 feet in Oregon ; it was in " a beautiful oval-shaped 

 mountain meadow of about an acre in extent, near the summit of 

 which stood a solitary young fir tree." There were no other trees 

 within 30 yards. He lay down to rest under the shade of this tree, 

 when his setter dog came running up and pointed a grouse sitting 

 on her nest within 3 feet of him. She allowed him almost to touch 

 her before she fluttered off ; the nest held two chicks and seven eggs 

 on the point of hatching. 



Eggs. — The sooty grouse lays from 6 to 10 eggs, but 7 or 8 are 

 the commonest numbers; as many as 16 have been found in a nest, 

 but evidently the product of two females. The eggs are indis- 

 tinguishable from those of the dusky grouse, which I have already 

 described. Bendire (1892) describes them as follows: 



The eggs are ovate in shape, and the ground color varies from pale cream 

 to a cream-buff, the latter being more common. In a single set before me 

 it is a pale cinnamon. The eggs are more or less spotted over their entire 

 surface with fine dots of chocolate or chestnut brown ; these spots vary con- 

 siderably in size in different sets, ranging from the size of No. 3 shot to that 

 of mustard seed. These markings are generally well rounded, regular in 

 shape, and pretty evenly distributed over the entire egg. An egg is usually 

 deposited daily and incubation does not begin until the set is completed, the 

 male taking apparently no part in this duty nor in the care of the young after 

 they are hatched. 



The measurements of 92 eggs average 48.5 by 35 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 53 by 34.5, 52 by 37, and 45 

 by 32.5 millimeters. 



Young. — But one brood is raised in a season. Various observers 

 have reported the incubation period, as from 18 to 24 days ; this duty 

 is performed by the female alone. Bendire (1892) writes: 



The cocks separate from the hens after incubation has commenced, I believe, 

 and keep in little companies, of from four to six, by themselves, joining the young 

 broods again in the early fall. At any rate, I have more than once come upon 

 several cocks in June and July without seeing a single hen amongst them. High 

 rocky points near the edges of the main timber, amongst juniper and mountain 

 mahogany thickets, ar e their favorite abiding places at that time of the year. 

 The young chicks are kept by the hen for the first week or two in close prox- 

 imity to the place where they were hatched, and not until they have attained 

 two weeks* growth will they be found along the willows and thickets bordering 

 the mountain streams. Their food consists at first principally of grasshoppers, 

 insects, and tender plant tops, and later in the season of various species of 

 berries found then in abundance everywhere, as well as the seeds of a species 



