PRAIRIE. SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 
HIS race of the Sharp-tailed Grouse ranges from 
Montana on the north to Wisconsin and Lllinois on 
the east, Colorado on the west, and New Mexico on the 
south. This is practically its present distribution, but 
doubtless long ago its eastern limit was much nearer to 
the Atlantic Coast than it is now, but the bird was forced 
westward by the advance of civilization and settlement of 
the country, and its place occupied by the Pinnated 
Grouse, which follows man’s footsteps as he penetrates 
into the wilderness. This process is indeed going on to- 
day, and yearly the range of the Sharp-tailed Grouse is 
becoming more restricted as it is hemmed in by settle- 
ments from every side. Although it is generally re- 
garded as exclusively a prairie bird, this is a mistaken 
idea, as has been shown in the account of the Northern 
and Western forms, which do in certain localities frequent 
the woods, and there is no reason whatever to suppose 
that in earlier times these birds were not as much at 
home, and throve as well in forest-covered districts, as did 
the Prairie Chicken at one time, when it was abundant on 
large tracts of the Atlantic Coast, or as the remnant left 
does to-day on Martha’s Vineyard. 
The habits of this well-known bird do not differ from 
those of the Western race already described, nor indeed 
from those of the Pinnated Grouse. In the early spring, 
in the month of April, when perhaps in many parts of 
their habitat in the northern regions, the snow still 
remains upon the ground, the birds, both males and 
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