COLUMBIAN SHABP-TAILED GROUSE 289 



or three days, they afforded us fine sport and an abundance of excellent food. 

 We found them again about the Klamath lakes. 



Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer (1918) say that it is " now almost or 

 entirely extirpated " as a California bird, and that " the disappear- 

 ance of this bird can be attributed to no other cause than to its in- 

 cessant pursuit by man. As long as a single bird remained hunting 

 persisted. Moreover the fact that this grouse prefers grassy locali- 

 ties, just such as are selected for ranch sites, indicates another of 

 the factors that led to its extermination." 



The southern limit of its present range seems to be in northern 

 New Mexico, where Mrs. Florence M. Bailey (1928) says of it: 



Though naturally a bird of more northern country with abundant rank grass 

 for breeding places, the high altitude of the grassy, broken-rimmed mesas north- 

 east of Raton, some 8,000-9,000 feet in elevation, " appears to create a little 

 world suitable to it in New Mexico," which, the oldest settlers attest, has long 

 been inhabited by it. 



Nesting. — Major Bendire (1892) says of its nesting habits: 



Nidification began usually from about April 15 to May 1, according to the 

 season. I found a set of fifteen eggs, which had been sat upon about a week or 

 ten days, on April 22, 1871. Some birds must have laid earlier still, as it was 

 no uncommon sight to find fully grown birds by July 10. All the nests of this 

 species which I examined were invariably well concealed and rather difficult 

 to find. You might search daily for a couple of weeks and be unsuccessful in 

 finding a nest, and again you might stumble on two or three on the same day. 

 A bunch-grass covered hillside, with a southerly exposure, seemed to be a 

 favorite nesting site with this Grouse at Fort Lapwai, while at Camp Harney, 

 Oregon, they confined themselves during the breeding season to the sage brush 

 covered plains of the Harney Valley, interspersed here and there with a low 

 grassy swale, nesting along the borders of these, where the grass attained a 

 heavier growth. The nest, like that of all the Grouse, is always placed on the 

 ground, usually close alongside some tall bunch of coarse grass, which hides 

 it completely from view. Even if it did not, the female harmonizes in color 

 so thoroughly with her surroundings that she is not apt to be noticed, unless 

 she should leave her nest, which she does not do very readily, as she is a very 

 close sitter. A slight hollow, usually scratched out on the upper side of a 

 bunch of grass, if the nest is placed on a hillside, is fairly lined with dry grass, 

 of which there is ordinarily an abundance to be found in the vicinity, and this 

 constitutes the nest. A few feathers from the lower parts of the bird are 

 usually mixed in among the eggs, each one of which is often imbedded about 

 two-thirds in its own mould and does not touch the others. Once only did I 

 find the eggs placed on top of each other, eight in the lower and five in the 

 upper layer. 



Eggs. — The eggs of the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse are indis- 

 tinguishable from those of its prairie relative. The measurements 

 of 58 eggs average 43.3 by 32.1 millimeters; the eggs showing the 

 four extremes measure 46.5 by 34.5, 39 by 31, and 42.5 by 30.5 

 millimeters. 



