COLUMBIA SHARP-TAIL GROUSE. 137 



the dry and^sandy soil, the brown on the withered bunch- 

 grass, and the sombre colored lichens of the rocks. It often 

 requires a keen and practised eye to distinguish one of 

 these birds from the ground on which it has fallen, even 

 though the eye be kept on the spot where it was seen to 

 fall. This similai'ity of colors with those of the prairie no 

 doubt effectually conceals them from the hawks and owls. 

 Its favorite haunt is on open grassy plains in the morning, 

 keeping concealed in the long thick grass, coming about 

 mid-day to the stream to drink, and to dust itself in the 

 sandy banks. It seldom goes into the timber, always re- 

 mains close to the prairie, and never retires into the depth 

 of the forests. It lays its eggs on the open prairie in a tuft 

 of grass, or near the foot of a small hillock, nesting early 

 in Spring, and depositing from twelve to fourteen eggs. 

 The nest is a mere hole scratched in the earth, with a few 

 grass stalks and I'oot fibres laid cai-elessly and loosely over 

 the bottom. Mr. Lord describes the eggs as of a dark rusty- 

 brown, with small splashes or speckles of darker brown 

 thickly spattered over them. After nesting time they ap- 

 pear in broods about the middle of August, the young birds 

 being about two-thirds grown. At this time they frequent 

 the margins of small stx"eams where thei-e is thin timber 

 and underbrush. After the middle of September they begin 

 to pack, two or three covies getting together, and flock 

 after flock joining until they accumulate into hundreds. 

 On the first appearance of snow they begin to perch on 

 the dead branches of a pine or the tops of fences. Near 

 Fort Colville, after snow fell, thej^ assembled in vast num- 

 bers in the large wheat stubbles. They became wary and 

 shy, the snow rendering every moving thing so conspicu- 

 ous that it was next to impossible for dogs to hunt them. 

 The food of this Grouse consists principally of berries in 

 the Summer months, such as the snowberrj'^, the bearberry, 

 the haws of the wild rose,' and the whortleberry, grain, the 

 larvse of insects, grass seeds, etc. In the Winter they run 

 over the snow with ease and celerity, dig holes in it, and 

 burrow underneath in the manner of a Ptarmigan. During 

 18 



