528 SCRATCHING BIRDS — GALLIX.E. 



Their foo.l consists of various IxTries, nuts, and seeds, besides grain 

 around ianns. Their eggs are numerous, laid in a slightly constructed nest 

 on the ground, and of an asliy-hrown color, hlunt at both ends. (Xuttall.) 

 The young at Puget's Sound are full grown about August, and probably 

 earlier in California. They are llien easily killed, and very white and 

 tender, being fit for shooting about September 1st. In the Sierra Ne\-ada 

 they frequented such ditticult ground, co\-ered with dense thickets, and on 

 steep slopes of the mountains, that I did not succeed in shooting any, but had 

 a good view of one, quite sufficient to determine its species, as it tiew down 

 from the top of a lofty spruce, and sailed half a mile away, while I was look- 

 ing down on it from tlie top of a mountain ridge. 



In winter they lixe much on the buds of trees, even those of the coniferfe, 

 and in Oregon are seen so seldom on the ground at that season that they 

 have been supposed by some to enugrate. Se\-eral may sometimes be shot 

 from one tree by taking care to kill the lo\\-est ones first. They weigh 

 three or four pounds. 



Tetrao Richardsonii, Douglas. 



BICHAEDSON'S GROUSE. 



Tetrao Ric!mr(fsonii,T)ovc,LXS,'Linn. Ti-ans. XVI. HI —Wilson-, Zool. lilnst. pi. 30, 31. 



— Gu.vY, Cat. Galliiuc, Br. llus. 1867, 86. — Loud, Pi-. R. Art. Inst. I. 1863, 122.— 



Denclnti/tipus Richardsonii, Elliot, Mon. Tctraouida', |ihuc. 

 Tetrao obsc urns, Sw.unsox and Uicii. Fauna Bor. Aiiicr. II. 1831, 344; pi. 59, 60. (Also 



of Audnl)uii ill iiart.) 



Sp. Cn.\u. Similar to T. ohicuni.f ; dilfe'rs in liivinc; tht tail more pqnare at cml, and 

 entirely blaek, or witliont the gray tip. 



//()/). Central Uueky Mnuntains, from South Piiss, and nortlnvard to Fort Liard. 

 II. B. T. 



This bird appears, in general habits and cliaracteristics, to be undis- 

 tinguisliable from tlie common dusky or blue grouse, except as stated aliove. 

 Its distribution is (piite peculiar, being encircled as it were liy the 1\ ohscnrus, 

 to the east, west, and soutli, and reaching northward at least as far as Fort 

 Liard, west of Tort Simpson, perhaps as far as the forest extends. It is 

 extremely abundant at Fort Liard, a post of the Hudson's Bay Company, 

 situated on the Liard River, and not \-ery far from Fort Simpson, likewise 

 one of the company's posts on tlie [Mackenzie liiver. At certain seasons of 

 tlie year its meat is excellent, and much souglit after by t!ie Indians and 

 Avhites. "With the exception of the tail, there appears but little to separate 

 it from its ally, Tetrao ohscurvs, and it was described as the last-mentioned 

 species in tlie " Fauna Boreali ^Vmericana " of Swainson and Lichardson, 

 and the two again confused by Audubon. (Laird.) 



