96 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
exhausted in the globes, he would resume for a brief 
space his normal shape, although the skin on the neck 
would seem flabby and wrinkled, when he would again 
proceed to inflate himself out of shape. The courting 
season over these sacs shrink entirely away, and the 
bare place is covered over by the feathers of the neck. 
The time of love-making, period of nesting, style, and 
position of the nest, and number and color of the eggs, 
are almost precisely the same as has been described in 
the article on the Dusky Grouse. In fact there could 
not well be any difference of consequence between birds 
so closely related as are the above-named species and the 
present race, for practically they are the same bird; the 
probable greater amount of moisture in the districts in- 
habited by the Sooty Grouse causes its plumage to 
assume a darker, more somber hue; a fact known to 
occur in the coloring of all animals which dwell in coun- 
tries visited by a great amount of rainfall. A belief is 
entertained among some that these Grouse remain in a 
somnolent state during the winter, regaining their 
activity in the spring; not like the old tale of the swal- 
lows, that they buried themselves in the mud, but that 
they went to sleep somewhere in the tree tops—hiber- 
nated in fact among the obscure depths of the firs and 
spruce. No doubt they do pass much of the winter amid 
the thick foliage of these trees, but the birds are far from 
being asleep, though for hours during the severe weather 
they may remain immovable. At such times the snow 
is usually very deep, and all food obtainable from the 
ground is hidden from sight, and the Grouse subsist on 
the buds and leaves of the trees amid which they have 
taken refuge, and have very little occasion to come from 
out their chosen resorts. Even the water they may need 
can be obtained from the snow lying on the branches. 
