TETRAONID.E — THE GROUSE. 431 



spread like a fan ; the bare and yellow oesophagus is inflated to a prodigious 

 size, and said to become nearly half as large as its body, while the silky 

 flexile feathers on the neck are erected. Assuming this grotesque form, the 

 bird proceeds to display a singular variety of attitudes, at the same time 

 chanting a love-song in a confused and grating, but not an offensively dis- 

 agreeable tone, represented as resembling hurr-hurr-hurr-r-r-r-hoo, ending 

 in a deep and hollow utterance. 



Centrocercus uropkasianus. ' 



Their nests were found, by Douglas, on the ground, under the shade of 

 Artemisia, or when near streams, among Phalaris arundinacea, and were care- 

 fully constructed of dry grass and slender twigs. The eggs are said to be as 

 many as from thirteen to seventeen in number, and the period of incubation 

 to be twenty-one or twenty-two days. The young leave the nest soon after 

 they are hatched. 



In the winter these birds are said to be found in large flocks of several 

 hundreds, in the spring in pairs, and later in the summer and fall in small 

 family groups. They were abundant throughout the barren arid plains of 

 the Columbia and in Northern California, but were not met with east of 

 the Rocky IVIountains. 



Dr. Newberry regards this Grouse, when in full plumage, as rather a hand- 

 some bird, and much better looking than any figure he has seen of it. It is 

 much the largest of American Grouse, weighing from five to six pounds. 

 The female is much smaller than the male, and is of a uniform sober-brown 

 color. The male bird has a distinctive character in the spaces of bare 

 orange-colored skin which occupy the sides of the neck, and are usually con- 

 cealed l)y the feathers, but may be inflated to a great size. The species was 

 not found in the valleys of California, but belongs both to the fauna of the 

 interior basin and to tliat of the Eocky Mountains, the dry desert country 

 lying on both flanks of this chain. He first found it high up on Pit Pdver, 

 and once came suddenly upon a male in an oasis near a warm spring, which 

 started up with a great flutter and rush,, and, uttering a hoarse hek-hek, 



