March in the Pine Woods. 



takes to wing through the brush with 

 a loud whirring of wings and a pro- 

 miscuous, high, chuckHng call, but if 

 the approach of danger is not too 

 sudden they prefer to elude pursuit by- 

 running into the dense underbrush. 



The dusky grouse is exclusively a 

 bird of the pine woods, and although I 

 have observed it to be quite tame in the 

 high Sierras, it was rather shy and retir- 

 ing in Mendocino County. Once dur- 

 ing the late autumn I startled a flock of 

 five or six of them in the dense woods, 

 but during the winter months they 

 entirely disappeared. In late February 

 and in March, however, their curious 

 booming was to be heard on every side, 

 although the authors of the sound were 

 extremely difficult to detect. The birds 

 have a habit of alighting upon a pine 

 limb close to the trunk, at a height of 

 from twenty to fifty feet from the 

 ground, in which situation it is well- 

 nigh impossible to detect them, so dark 

 is the shade of the foliage and so per- 

 149 



