140 BULLETIN 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



sub-terminal black bars on the leathers oiten interrupted, giving to these 

 parts a beautiful "spangled" appearance; in the upper parts the tawny ochra- 

 ceous barring is very prominent ; the middle tail feathers and upper tail- 

 coverts are black crossed by .irregular narrow ochraceous bars and tipped 

 with white. In the gray phase the lower parts only as far as the upper 

 breast are ochraceous-buff, the feather of the breast being broadly tipped 

 with white, and the black bars are not interrupted, giving to the breast and 

 abdomen the appearance of being black and white, entirely different from the 

 red phase; the light bars on the neck and upper back are ochraceous-buff 

 and the tawny ochraceous of the red phase in the rest of the plumage of 

 the upper parts is replaced by wood or hair brown ; the central tail feathers 

 are black, barred irregularly or stippled with wood brown and tipped with 

 white ; the upper tail-coverts lack the white tips. Both phases were taken 

 at the same locality with young; the gray phase is the rarer and in our series 

 there are intermediate stages. 



Food. — The same writer says of the summer food : " The food con- 

 tents of the crops of the adults was either spruce leaves or the green 

 berries of a low-growing plant, while that of the young was the 

 blossoms of the red heather Ph/yllodoce empetriformis, and a few 

 insects." 



Aretas A. Saunders has sent me the following notes : 



Late in summer this bird seems to feed mainly on berries, particularly the 

 "huckleberries" (Yaccinium) . Up to the middle of October their crops con- 

 tained a blue-colored berry of this genus that grows along the edges of sprue;' 

 forests. There were sometimes the smaller red-berried ones, another Vacci- 

 mum that forms undergrowth in the lodgepole-pine forest. All these are called 

 "huckleberry" in Montana, though allied to the blueberries. I do not think 

 the true huckleberry (Gaylussacia) ever grows there. The only other food 

 I have noted is spruce and balsam needles, and late in the season these alone 

 are found in the crops. Apparently these needles are the main winter food, 

 though I have never shot and examined a bird later than late November. 



Behavior. — Mr. Saunders says in his notes: 



All through Montana this bird is known as "fool hen" because of its lack 

 of fear of man. It will sit still, even when close to the ground and allow one 

 to approach very near. They are often killed with sticks or stones. When 

 a dog approaches they fly up into the trees, and sit there. By shooting the 

 lowest one first, I have shot several in a flock, the others sitting and waiting 

 their turns. In Jefferson County, Montana, we had a small brown spaniel 

 that would put them up a tree, and then stand beneath and yelp till we came. 

 In Lewis and Clark Counties, on the upper waters of the Sun River, I once 

 climbed a small pine, and grasped a cock Franklin grouse by the foot, just to 

 see if I could do it. The bird moved to a higher limb when I let go, but 

 did not fly away. The male, even in fall, is fond of puffing out its black 

 breast, and opening and shutting the red "comb" over its eve, apparently 

 by a sort of lifting of its " eyebrows." 



John O. Snyder (1900) says that " one sat sedately on a limb while 

 a revolver was emptied at her. The shots having missed, roots and 

 stones were thrown, which she avoided by stiff bows or occasional 

 steps to the side." 



