296 BULLETIN 162, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



to 3 days old, collected on June 27, in Manitoba, by Ernest Thompson Seton, 

 had eaten 95 percent of insects and 5 percent of wild strawberries. The sharp- 

 tailed grouse is fond of grasshopper*. Vernon Bailey shot 3 birds at Elk 

 River, Minn., September 17, 1S94, which had eaten, respectively, 7, 23, and 31 

 grasshoppers. The species is a destroyer also of the Rocky Mountain locust. 

 Of 9 birds collected by Professor Aughey from May to October, inclusive, 6 

 had eaten 174 of these pests. The bird eats also a few crickets and, like other 



gallinaceous game birds, devours the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa 

 decemlineata ) . 



The vegetable food of the sharp-tailed grouse, so far as ascertained in the 

 laboratory, comprises weed seeds, 7.39 percent ; grain, 20.50 percent ; fruit. 

 27.68 percent; leaves, buds, and flowers, 31.07 percent; and miscellaneous 

 vegetable food, 3.06 percent ; making a total of 89.81 percent. Like many other 

 game birds, the species feeds on mast (largely acorns), including acorns of the 

 scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea). Corn is eaten, but whf.at is the favorite 

 grain. It formed 17.21 percent of the food. A thousand kernels of wheat 

 were sometimes found in one stomach. The sharp-tailed grouse is a great 

 browser. It makes 31.07 percent of its food of leaves, buds, and flowers. 

 Ernest Thompson Seton found it eating the buds of willow and birch. It 

 feeds on the leaves «f cottonwood, alder, blueberry, juniper, and larch; also 

 leaves of quillwort (Isoctes), vetch, dandelion, grass, and rush (Juncus). 

 Hearne says that in winter it eats the tops of the dwarf birch and the buds of 

 poplars. Flowers form 19.90 percent of its diet, the species leading all other 

 birds in this respect. A half pint of the showy, bluish blossoms of the pasque 

 flower (Pulsatilla hirsutissima) which brightens the western prairie are often 

 taken at a meal, and those of the dandelion also are eaten. Inflorescence of 

 grasses, alder, willow, maple, and canoe birch are plucked along with leaf 

 buds. Like the prairie hen and the ruffed grouse, the sharp-tailed grouse is 

 frugivorous, and fruit forms 27.6S percent of its diet. Hips of wild rose alone 

 form 17.38 percent. Ernest Thompson Seton, who examined hundreds of 

 stomachs of the sharp-tailed grouse, says that he can not recollect an instance 

 in which they did not contain the stony seeds of the wild rose. Mr. Seton 

 states that in places in Manitoba, where he has collected during the winter, 

 gravel to pulverize the food is not to be had, and the stony rose seeds act in 

 its stead. Rose hips appear difficult to digest, and, furthermore, are sometimes 

 thickly set with bristles that would irritate the human stomach, but appear to 

 cause no inconvenience to the grouse. The persistent bright-colored hips are 

 readily seen above the snow, and they are a boon to the birds in wintry north- 

 ern regions where the struggle for existence is bitter. It feeds on blueberries 

 and cranberries and on the snowberry (Symphoricarpus racemosus) , various 

 species of manzanita, bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), buffalo berry (Lep- 

 argyrea argentea), juniper berries, huckleberries, and arbutus berries. It takes 

 also the partridge berry (Mitchella repens) , a favorite with the ruffed grouse, 

 Like many other species, it eats with relish the fruit of cornel (Cornus stol- 

 unifera) and poison ivy (both Rhus radicans and Rhus diversiloba) . 



Behavior. — The sharp-tailed grouse rises with a loud whir of 

 wings and flies away with considerable speed, usually in a straight 

 line in the open, with rapid beats of the wings alternated with short 

 periods of sailing on down-curved wings. While hunting for nests, 

 where these grouse were common, we kept flushing them from their 

 roosting and dusting places among the bushes. As they rose, and 



