66 Munro, Birds of the Okanagan Valley. [j" n . 



be seen to rise and fall as the bird draws in air and then slowly lets it out. 

 The combs are brilliant yellow and much swollen. While inflating the 

 air-sacs the bill is held wide open. The mating call might be rendered as, 

 whoo, " whoo whoo-oo, whoo whoo, whoo." Unlike the Blue Grouse 

 of the coast region, this call is soft and has no great carrying power. There 

 is also a single note, " hoop," that can be heard for a great distance. I have 

 never been able to discover if it is the male or the female that uses the 

 single hoot. After calling, the male may strut a few yards, in the same 

 attitude as described, and with breast almost touching the ground. They 

 then look more like a mammal than a bird. While mating, the males are 

 utterly indifferent to danger and many are killed by coyotes and goshawks. 



The eggs are laid early in May. The nests are usually shallow depressions 

 in the ground, lined with pine-needles and a few feathers; some have little 

 or no lining. A favorite site for the nest is on a bunch-grass bench, on a 

 steep mountain side, close to pine or fir trees. Sometimes they build on 

 the loose sand under a pine tree. One nest found on May 13, 1915, and 

 containing nine partly incubated eggs, was under the "A" of a rail fence 

 close to a wagon road, through open woods of yellow pine. The following 

 year I found a nest with ten eggs, under the same fence, close to where the 

 first one had been located. 



May 31 is the earliest record for newly hatched young. There is con- 

 siderable mortality in the young birds and several weeks after hatching 

 the coveys have generally dwindled to six or eight. They grow fast and 

 when the size of Meadowlarks will fly as straight and true as a Quail. 

 When a covey of \ oung is flushed the female will not rise until the young 

 have alighted in the nearby trees. When in the trees they assume the 

 characteristic attitude of the adult, standing parallel to the branch, with 

 tail slightly raised. 



The young are full grown by August 15. They leave the timbered 

 country shortly before this to feed on grasshoppers along the margins of 

 wooded draws and coulees, on the open range. During the middle of the 

 day they can be seen, sunning themselves on some rock in a prominent 

 place where they can watch for enemies. They are quite tame at this 

 season and as one approaches a feeding covey, they will stiffen and remain 

 in rigid postures until one is within a few yards, and then rise and fly into 

 the nearest tree. 



About September 1, the coveys begin to " pack " and are then found 

 principally in the stands of yellow pine (Pin us ponderosa). They are 

 then feeding chiefly on the large oily seeds of this tree, picking them off 

 the ground underneath the trees. They still eat many grasshoppers, 

 catching them in the open places, early in the morning while the insects 

 are sluggish. When the supply of fallen pine seeds is exhausted, they eat 

 rose hips, snowberries and red and black haws. 



About the middle of October, the packs go into the thick stands of 

 Douglas fir and remain there until the spring, eating fir needles exclusively. 

 Their flesh becomes impregnated with the flavor of fir and is quite uneatable. 



