20 



THE OOLOGIST. 



but despite it all many trees still stand 

 though scattered and lifeless. They 

 are so towering and limbless that a dis- 

 tant view gives them the appearance of 

 many mast-heads outlined against the 

 horizon. Raspberry bushes and sprout- 

 ing poplars (the last of which I antici- 

 pate will sometime grow to a forest) 

 cover the ground and curl about the 

 fallen logs. The land is slightly slop- 

 ing, though in places the marks of the 

 Great Glacier can be seen in pinched 

 and rather barren ridges, and between 

 every slope the alluvium has been 

 washed down by the rain for ages until 

 well grassed meadows have been form- 

 ed. 



As I passed along I very often saw a 

 Pinnated Grouse whirring over the 

 ground and toward night-fall when the 

 birds shift, several flocks flew by. One 

 that sat in the road was so tame that 

 the hind wheel of the wagon had. near- 

 ly touched it before it moved away 

 from the roadside. 



The driver said that it had been only 

 three or four years since the advent of 

 this bird into this country and that 

 since then they had increased very rap- 

 idly. Upon the day the closed law for 

 shooting expired there was an abund- 

 ance, but incessant hunting by sports- 

 men and by Indians and espeuidly by 

 men shooting for the market had great- 

 ly thinned them. 



It was easy to see why the Prairie 

 Hen should choose thih place as a 

 home. It was practically open land 

 and not forest and the bushes gave the 

 birds good covering to hide under. 

 Then also they like to spend the warm 

 noon-days in the grass of the meadows 

 and they found ample opportunity to 

 do so here. 



The early habitat of the Pinnated 

 Grouse was all of the territory west of 

 the AUeghanies. Even as late as the 

 early history of Minnesota I learn that 

 they were not at all common so far 

 west. The Sharp-tailed Grouse was 



then the prevailing species, but gradu- 

 ally tha latter bird shifted away from 

 us and the Pinnated Grouse came in. 

 That bird too has shifted until they are 

 far more abundant to the west of Min- 

 neapolis. 



It is the general belief that this 

 Grouse is an inhabitant of the prairie 

 lands of the west, or lands that are par- 

 tially prairie, and led by this belief I 

 did not expect to lind them in the pine 

 regions. 



There are doubtless many tracts, as I 

 have already described, in the great 

 forests of the northwest and the north 

 in Canada, which would as readily 

 serve for the home of the Pinnated 

 Grouse as the one I have before men- 

 tioned, if they are not so already. The 

 soil upon which pine grows is general- 

 ly poor and these regions are not des- 

 tined to become so rapidly settled by 

 farmers as the more fertile prairie 

 lands audit is possible, that, with the 

 gradual settlement of the prairie re- 

 gions and the consequent persecution 

 of the Prairie Hen, this bird may come 

 to seek a home in these wilder places. 

 H. M. Guilford, 

 Minneapolis, Minn. 



In Alaska "for a Big" Time." 



Friend Lattin: 



Please discontinue my adv. in the 

 OoLOGiST, as I am just about to start 

 on a collecting trip to be gone until 

 summer. Can you kindly give my cor- 

 respondents notice through your pa- 

 per? My post-oftice address is "Mc- 

 Loud's Post, Houkan, Jackson's-P. O., 

 Alaska." Will get mail once a month 

 so send the Oologist there for the 

 present. 1 am in for a big time — lots 

 of rare birds — and a breeding resort in 

 summer. Geo G. Cantwell. 



Dec. 10, 1896. 



Ripans Tabules cure indigestion. 



