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THE OREGON NATURALIST. 



N, O. A. 



The regular monthly meeting of the Portland 

 Annex was held on April 24, at the residence 

 of President, W. L. Finley. Secretary, A . L. 

 Pope reported the following members as having 

 been admitted to the Association. 



N. A. Shaw, Grand Forks, N. D, 



E. B. Guthrie, Washington, Pa. 



F. A. Stuhr, Portland, Or. 

 C. R. Bean, Salem, Or. 

 Communications on the Sooty Grouse, from 



Messrf. A, W. Anthony; C. W. Swallow; 

 H. M. Hoskins; A. L. Pope and E. F. Hadley 

 were read. Mr. Anthony writes, 



"The Sooty Grouse — Dendragapus obs. 

 fuligimosus — ranges from the Southern Sierra 

 Nevada in California to Sitka, being confined 

 to the mountains in the southern part of its 

 range, but extends to the coast in Oregon, 

 where the heavy fir timber affords it shelter. 



"The Dusky, — var. D. obscurus; inhabits 

 the mountains of Northern New Mexico, 

 Arizona, Colorado, Utah and as far north as; 

 perhap.s, Southern Idaho and Montana, where 

 it gives place to Richardson's — var. richard- 

 sonii which extends northward along the Rocky 

 Mountain system into the British possessions. 



"The difference in plumage may be briefly 

 given as follows: taking as a standard the 

 Oregon bird. The Dusky Grouse is lighter 

 colored, the band on the end of the tail is much 

 broader, the throat is mostly whitish, in males; 

 blackish with a white border in the Oregon 

 birds, males. The Richardson's Grouse only 

 differs from the Dusky in the tail, which lacks 

 the terminal band of gray in Richardsons, but 

 • is very prominent in both Dusky and Sooty. 



"As far as the habits of the two species; 

 Dusky and Sooty are concerned, I see but 

 little difference. Both are much given to 'hoot- 

 ing' in the nesting sea-son; a note that is 

 familiar to every Oregon and Washington 

 sportsman. I have on several occasions heard 

 the notes at all hours of the night during the 

 spring months on the Columbia, but do not 

 think I ever heard the Dusky 'hoot' at night, 



though I have been in their haunts in the 

 Rocky Mountains a great deal. Either species 

 is remarkably hard to discover when they 

 have once disappeared in the branches of a fir 

 or spruce, and I have often spent considerable 

 time looking for a bird that was in plain sight, 

 within easy gunshot, a fact that was not dis- 

 covered until the bird took wing, which l)y- 

 the-way, very often occurs just as the hunters 

 eye falls upon the object of his search. It is 

 probable that some involuntary movement on 

 the part of the hunter, warns the watchful bird 

 that it is discovered. 



"Ill Colorado I have often found flocks of 

 Dusky Grouse, consisting of a pair of adults 

 and brood of young, at a distance from timber; 

 at times along the willow-lined streajns, I>ut 

 more often in clearings where wild beriies 

 had attracted them. As a rule they stay well 

 within the shelter of the coniferous timber. 

 In winter they seldom descend to the ground, 

 a habit shared with the Sooty also, but spend 

 the time in the tree tops often living for days 

 or even weeks in a small grove of thick spruce, 

 living on the leaves which give their flesh a 

 rather bitter taste at this season. Their 

 presence is usually discovereil by their drop- 

 pings on the snow under the trees and the 

 spruce 'needles' which they dislodge. 



"I was once descending from a high pass in 

 the mountains, between the headwaters of 

 the Rio Grande and the tiibutaries of the 

 Rio San Juan, in Southwestern Colorado, I 

 think it was July 15, I was still in the snow 

 banks, for the timber line lay far below the 

 sea of alpine willows thai surrounded me on 

 every side. The sun had set, and I knew 

 that I had a trip to make in the dark, for 

 several miles perhaps, before I could fined 

 a suitable campmg spot, and that two, over 

 a broken country and without a trail. Just 

 before dark a female Dusky Grouse flushed 

 at the pack horse's feet and I found a set 

 of nine eggs in a leaf lined nest at the base 

 of a willow, far above timber line; hastily 

 laying the eggs in my hat I followed on 

 after the horses and for the next two hours 



