ITS HABITAT AND FAVOURITE HAUNTS. 303 
on the tobacco-plains near the Kootanie river, 
round the Osoyoos lakes, and in the valley of 
the Columbia. 
I have never seen this grouse on the western 
side of the Cascade range. This bird is also 
found in the Red River settlements, in the north 
of Minnesota, as well as on the shores of Hudson’s 
Bay, and on the Mackenzie river. Mr. Ross 
notes it as far north as the Arctic Circle. 
Of the different species of grouse I met with 
in my rambles (described in vol. i.) not one has 
come so often under my observation as this, the 
sharp-tailed grouse. Its favourite haunt is on open 
orassy plains,—in the morning keeping itself 
concealed in the thick long grass, but coming in 
about midday to the streams to drink, and dust 
itself in the sandy banks; it seldom goes into the 
timber, and, if it does, always remains close to 
the prairie, never retiring into the depths of the 
forest. 
They lay their eggs on the open prairie, in 
a tuft of grass, or by the foot of a small hillock ; 
nesting early in the spring, and laying from twelve 
to fourteen eges. The nest is a hole scratched 
out in the earth, a few grass-stalks and root-fibres 
laid carelessly and loosely over the bottom ; the 
egos are of a dark rusty-brown, with small splashes 
