PRAIRIE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE 297 



for some distance afterwards, they uttered a peculiar clucking note 

 sounding like whticker, ivhucker, whucker. They flew rapidly for 

 some distance and then set their wings and scaled downward into 

 some good cover or behind some little hill. Seton (Thompson, 1890) 

 says: 



Their mode of flight is to flap and sail by turns every 40 or 50 yards, and 

 so rapid and strong are they on the wing that I have seen a chicken save itself 

 by its swiftness from the first swoop of a peregrine Falcon, while another was 

 seen to escape by flight from a Snowy Owl. 



Aretas A. Saunders says in his notes: 



Though usually found on the ground, these birds sometimes perch in trees, 

 either cottonwoods along a river valley or in yellow pines where hills and 

 prairie come together. In southeastern Montana and northwestern South 

 Dakota they come into the pine hills when the snow gets deep and spend the 

 nights there. In that region I saw them in larger flocks than elsewhere, often 

 50 or 60 birds in a flock. In the pine hills I have seen as many as 30 birds 

 perched in a single yellow pine and have watched them fly from tree to tree, 

 half a dozen birds leaving at a time, and then another group following till 

 the whole flock had reached the new tree. 



Voice. — Besides the hollow booming sound made by the birds in 

 the courtship dance and the guttural clucking notes so commonly 

 heard when they are flushed, " the birds have several cackling notes, 

 and the males a peculiar crowing or low call, that in tone sounds 

 somewhat like the call of the turkey " (Goss, 1891). 



Enemies. — These grouse are subject to the attacks of the numerous 

 enemies that beset all ground-nesting birds. Their eggs and young 

 are preyed upon by the smaller and slower predatory mammals and 

 birds, while the larger beasts and birds of prey attack the adults. 

 While absorbed in their courtship dancing they are easy prey to the 

 crafty coyote. Laing (1913) tells of a family of coyotes that estab- 

 lished their den, skilfully hidden, on one of the dancing hills; here 

 he found ample evidence that the wise old coyote and her pups had 

 levied regular toll on the unsuspecting grouse. The larger falcons 

 and the goshawk take their share of the grouse, though the latter are 

 fast enough in flight to give even these swift- winged hawks a lively 

 chase. C. L. Broley has sent me the following notes : 



One cold day this fall, while bird observing with Mrs. Broley on the banks 

 of the Red River, north of Selkirk, we saw three sharp-tailed grouse fly out 

 of the woods on the opposite side of the river as if they had urgent business 

 elsewhere, and a moment later a fourth one burst out with two goshawks in 

 hot pursuit. The grouse flew directly out over the water, where one of the 

 hawks, reluctant to follow in the open, dropped out of the chase. The grouse 

 fled upstream, keeping some 50 feet above the water and an equal distance 

 from each shore, followed, some 30 feet behind, by the other hawk, which to our 

 surprise kept below the altitude of the thoroughly frightened chicken, which 



