26 Anthony, Migraiion of Richardson's Grouse. Ctan 



for, after which the tender green shoots are greedily devoured, 

 and the remainder of the migration is much more leisurely per- 

 formed. 



The first birds which I saw the past spring were males, but I 

 could not be sure that either sex preceded the other in migration. 

 A few birds undoubtedly remain and nest throughout the timbered 

 region of Powder River Mountains, but the percentage is small 

 indeed compared with those that nest on the bare sage plains 

 along Powder and Burnt Rivers. Many of the nests are placed in 

 the shelter of the scattered growth of chokecherry, aspen, or cotton- 

 wood that fringes the water courses tributary to the river ; and a 

 few of these nests may produce young that reach maturity, but 

 fully as many birds lay in the shelter of a bare rock, or scanty 

 sage brush in the open plain, in company with Sage Grouse ; and 

 fortunate indeed is the bird, nesting in such location, that raises 

 its young. In a circuit of not over six miles from my camp on 

 Powder River the past May, were ranged not less than twenty 

 thousand sheep which tramped out the nests so completely, that, 

 while finding dozens of broken nests, I saw not one that had not 

 been destroyed, of either Richardson's or Sage Grouse, and only 

 one young bird. Nevertheless, many of them do escape, as their 

 numbers testify, although I am told, on good authority, that there 

 are very few in comparison with their former numbers. 



The love note of the male Richardson's Grouse bears no 

 resemblance to that of its near kinsman, the Sooty Grouse of the 

 Cascade and Coast Ranges. From a perch in a tall fir, the latter 

 utters a series of hoots, deep and throaty, while the subject of the 

 present sketch has, so far as I have heard, but a single nasal toot, 

 loud and far reaching. When uttered the bird is usually strutting 

 on the ground before a member of the gentle sex, with the tail 

 spread and elevated and the wings drooping, resembling nothing 

 so much as a turkey gobbler in miniature. The note is uttered 

 as, with lowered head and threatening mien, he rushes at the hen, 

 or perhaps at an intruding rival. 



The return migration is less pronounced in its beginning, and 

 more gradual in its progress. Toward the last of July the broods 

 of well grown young, attended by the adults, begin to appear along 

 the ridges, returning as they came by walking invariably up to the 



