CHAPTEH III. 

 THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 



Varieties of the Sharp-tailed Grouse — Appearance and color — Associates 

 with prairie fowl — Great dancers — Ball-rooms — Opening of the 

 dancing season — Grotesque evolutions — The nest and eggs — 

 Faithful mothers— The young — How the mother protects them — 

 Packing in winter — They lie well to dogs— Their habits when 

 flushed — Roost in trees — Winter shooting — Where to seek for 

 them— Their numbers and enemies— Unsuspicious early in the 

 season— A day among the Sharp- taOs in Idaho — The stubble-fields 

 — The first volley — I am made a Jehu — An Indian hunting party — 

 Good shots — Difference between war and hunting arrows— Dusky 

 anglers — Spearing trout — How to cook fish — Dogs with "strong 

 medicine" — An extraordinary shot with an arrow — Result of a 

 day's sporting — Two thousand birds killed by six men in six weeks 

 — Twelve brace in two hours — Diflaculty of finding Sharp-tails 

 without dogs — Best time for shooting them. 



There are two varieties of the Sharp-tailed Grouse in 

 the Northwest, but the difference between tliem is not 

 very strongly marked. The more northern of the two 

 [Pediocetes var. phasianellus) ranges from Lake Superior 

 to the Arctic regions, and west as far as Alaska. This 

 is blackish above, variegated with brownish-yellow; the 

 scapulars have broad streaks of white; the markings be- 

 neath are dusky; the head and neck and the ground 

 color are white; the throat has dusky spots; and the 

 toes are as completely feathered as those of the ptarmi- 

 gans. Pediocetes var. columiia7uis, whose habitat extends 

 from Illinois on the east to the Cascade Eange on the 

 west, is paler than the preceding, and its legs and toes 

 are less densely feathered, owing to the milder climate of 

 the region in which it dwells. This variety is known as 

 the spotted chicken, the white-belly, pin-tail, sprig-tail, 

 and sharp-tail grouse in different localities. Its prevail- 

 ing colors are a clear dusky-black above, and a pure white 

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