98 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



But a single brood is raised in a season. Nidification begins, sometimes at 

 least, extremely early with this species, eggs having been found May 1, 18(53, 

 ])y Mr. L. Clarke, of the Hudson Bay Company, at Fort Rae, in latitude 63'^. 

 These must have been laid long before the ice and snow disappeared from the 

 surrounding country. Mr. R. MacFarlane also took a nest containing nine eggs, 

 on May 15, 1884, near Fort Providence. According to this gentleman, the 

 Sliarp-tailed Grouse breeds also in the pine forests on both sides of the Lock- 

 hart and Upper Anderson Rivers, where one or two nests were taken, but 

 the eggs were afterward lost. 



The number of eggs to a set varies from seven to fourteen, and their 

 ground color from a fawn color with a vinaceous rufous liloom, to chocolate, 

 tawny, and olive brown in different specimens. The majority of the eggs are 

 linely marked with small, well-defined spots of reddish brown and lavender, 

 resembling the markings found on the eggs of Tipnpanuchiis americanns, only 

 they are much more distinct. Compared with the eggs of the two south- 

 ern subspecies P. phaskmcUus cohimhianm and P. phas'mnclliis campestris, they 

 usually are very much darker colored, even the palest specimens being 

 darker than the hea-sdest marked eggs of either of the two subspecies. These 

 markings are entirely supei'ficial, and when removed leave the shell a creamy 

 white in some cases and a very pale green in others. In shape they are 

 usually ovate. The average measurement of thirty-four eggs in the U. S. 

 National Museum collection is 44.5 by 32 millimetres. The largest Qgg of 

 this series measvxres 48 by 33, the smallest 42 by 30 millimetres. 



Of the type specimens selected to show the variations, No. 7619 (PI. 3, 

 Fig. 3), from an incomplete set of seven, was obtained May 10, 1863, near 

 Fort Rae, Great Slave Lake, by Mr. L. Clarke, jr., of the Hudson Bay Com- 

 pany; No. 7620 (PI. 3, Fig. 4), from an incomplete set of six, taken June 1, 

 1863, by the same gentleman, in the same locality; and No. 22503 (PI. 3, 

 Fig. 5), a single egg-, taken May 16, 1885, near Fort Providence, Great 

 Slave Lake, was obtained from Mr. R. MacFarlane, also of the Hudson Bay 

 Company. 



36. Pediocaetes phasianellus columbianus (Ord). 



COLUMBIAN SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 



Phasianus columbianus Ord, Guthrie's Geography, 2d Am. ed., 11, 1815, 317. 

 Pedicecetes phasianellus var. columbianus Coues, Key to North American Birds, 1872, 

 234. 



(B 463, C 383a, R 478a, C 562, U 308a.) 



Geographical range : Northwestern United States : south to northeastern Cali- 

 fornia, northern Nevada, and Utah ; east to Montana and Wyoming ; west to Oregon 

 and Washington ; north, chiefly west of Rocky Mountains, through British Columbia, to 

 central Alaska (Fort Yukon). 



The Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse inhabits the grass-covered plains of 

 the Nortliwest. Its breeding range extends from eastern Montana and Wyo- 

 ming, westward through northern and central Utah, the whole of Idaho, eastern 



