124 LAND BIRDS 
297a. SOOTY GROUSE. — Dendragapus obscurus 
Suliginosus. 
Famity: The Grouse, Partridges, Quails, ete. 
Length: Adult male 20.00-23.00; adult female 16.00-19.00. 
Adult Male: Upper parts blackish slate-color, finely mottled with gray 
and brown ; tail black, with or without gray border on end ; under 
parts very dark slate-color. 
Adult Female: Similar to male, but much smaller ; upper parts washed 
with dark rusty, and indistinctly barred with sooty brown. 
Young: Upper parts rusty brown, mottled with sooty and buff; under 
parts gray, more or less spotted with black. 
Downy Young: Above, brown, white, and black mixed, forming irregu- 
lar stripes on the back and head ; under parts grayish white or light 
buffy gray. 
Geographical Distribution: The Coast Range from Alaska through Cali- 
fornia in the timbered Transition and Boreal zone. 
Breeding Range: Nearly coincident with Geographical Distribution. 
Breeding Season: May and June. 
Nest: A hollow under the side of a log or bush, scantily lined with grass. 
Eggs: 7 to 10; cream, thickly spotted with shades of brown. Size 
1.78 X 1.38. 
THE Sooty Grouse is one of the largest and hand- 
somest of its family. It haunts the coniferous forests of 
the Sierra Nevada, and rears its brood in security in 
timber too dense for the hunter. Well it knows that in 
silence and statuesque rigidity hes its safety, and when 
pursued it takes to a tree, where its sooty plumage 
makes it seem like a bump on a branch, rather than a 
bird. Let it guess, however, that its presence is dis- 
covered and like a flash it is gone, cackling like a 
“whirring” like a small cyclone, 
frightened hen and 
down into the cover of the underbrush. 
‘The love-making of the male is marked by all the 
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