SHAK P-TAILED GROUSE, 
ie are three races of Sharp-tailed Grouse: a dark 
form, almost black in its markings, and two lighter 
colored subspecies. The present is the dark style and 
has a high Northern dispersion, never coming within the 
boundaries of the United States. It ranges throughout 
British America as high as 69° of north latitude, and does 
not come to the south much below 52°. It has not been 
found west of the Rocky Mountains, but occurs on some 
of the eastern slopes, is abundant near Great Slave Lake, 
and on the Atlantic side of the continent is not uncom- 
mon around Hudson Bay. 
Mr. MacFarlane has given about all the information 
we have of this species in its native haunts, and he says 
it breeds in the pine forests on both sides of the Lock- 
hart and Anderson rivers, where some nests were taken. 
A single brood is raised in a season, and its habits and 
economy do not differ from the better known birds liv- 
ing within the limits of the Union. The number of eggs 
ranges from seven to fourteen, of a fawn or very dark 
buff color, or olive-brown marked with small spots of 
reddish brown. The eggs are much darker in appearance 
than those of either of the subspecies, and, like those of 
many of the other species of Grouse, the markings can 
be easily rubbed off, leaving the shell a pale hue, some- 
times almost white. Incubation begins very early, before 
the snow and ice have vanished in those northern regions, 
and nests with eggs have been found as early as the be- 
ginning of May. It dwells both in the wooded districts 
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