THE DUSKY GEOUSE. 139 



Mountains, and a person fond of slaughter may bag most 

 of them, owing to their tameness and unsuspicious na- 

 ture. Some western sportsmen say that the hen has 

 two broods in a season, if the spring opens early and the 

 weather is fine, but that the second brood rarely numbers 

 more than seven or eight, or about one-half the first. 

 The chicks are able to fly when they are three weeks old, 

 and are strong enough in August to look after them- 

 selves. When they are with the mother she takes them 

 to the creek bottoms late in the afternoon, and there 

 they may be found during the evening and early morn- 

 ing. If they are scattered, they lie well to a dog, and 

 as they rise only as they are flushed, the majority, if not 

 all, may be brought to bag, for, though swift on the 

 wing, they fly straight ahead. 



The Indians of some portions of the West have such 

 a superstitious reverence for this bird during its mat- 

 ing season that they will not injure it, even when 

 they are suffering from hanger, for fear it might bring 

 them " bad medicine;'' but these scruples disappear later 

 on, when the young are in prime condition, for they then 

 capture them in every possible way, from snaring to 

 shooting. They often follow single birds or small coveys 

 by tracking them in snow, and when the footsteps end 

 they look for the fugitives in the trees, though often 

 without success, owing to the harmony of hue existing 

 between them and the foliage amid which they seek 

 shelter. Two varieties of this species are supposed to 

 exist in the West, yet the difference between them is 

 slight, though perhaps sufficient to give them a varietal 

 name. The variety distinguished as fuliginosus, which 

 IS the one indigenous to Oregon, Washington Territory, 

 British Columbia, and Alaska, is darker than the others, 

 and is plumbaceous beneath, without any white borders to 

 the feathers, except about the flanks and vent. The 

 head is a dusky black, the tarsi are lead-colored, the 



