[zio] BIRDS OF OREGON 



and their greater coverts are broadly tipped with white and have white shaft streaks." 

 (Bent) (See Plate 33, A.*) Size: Male, length zo-z}, wing 9.40-10.00, tail 8. Female, 

 length 17.50-19.00, wing 8.70, tail 6. Nest: A slight depression, lined with dead 

 leaves, ferns, and other dry vegetable matter. Eggs: 6 to 10, usually 6 or 7, pale 

 cream to light buff, more or less spotted with fine dots of dark brown (Plate 33, B). 

 DISTRIBUTION General: Northwest coast mountains from Alaska to northwestern 

 California. In Oregon: Permanent resident of Coast Ranges, Willamette Valley, Cas- 

 cade Mountains, and intervening ranges to Siskiyous. (See Figure 4.) 



THE SOOTY GROUSE, or "Hooter" ' (Plate 34, A), was first listed for this State 

 by Townsend (1839), and since that time it has been in practically every 

 list for the territory in which it is found. It is still a fairly common resi- 

 dent of the wooded areas, including the isolated buttes and wooded hills 

 of the Willamette Valley, though much diminished in numbers in recent 

 years. Mount Hood is the type locality of this subspecies, and from here 

 it is found along the Cascades south to about the California line. Speci- 

 mens from the southern Cascades, particularly from the vicinity of Keno 

 and Fort Klamath, show intergradation with D. f. sierrae, some being 

 quite like specimens from the Warner Mountains and Sierra Nevadas. All 

 the Blue Grouse in the territory to the north and west including the east 

 slope of the Cascades can be considered to be this subspecies. 



Early in the spring, in late February or March, the males of the Sooty 

 Grouse begin their curious love song, the low-pitched hoot-hoot-hoot, re- 

 peated from four to six times and audible for amazing distances. It has 

 a curious ventriloquial quality that makes the "singer" difficult to locate. 

 When finally discovered, he usually will be found perched high in a giant 

 fir, close to the trunk. The call is uttered with a slightly opened bill 

 and is accompanied by an inflating of the throat that continues until the 

 brilliant-yellow air sacs are on full display. 



The nests (Plate 33, B) are usually built beneath a small tree or shrub. 

 They may or may not be concealed and usually contain six or seven eggs. 

 Nests with fresh eggs have been found from April 14 (Hadley 1899) to 

 June 4 (Prill 1893). In addition to these published records, Alex Walker 

 has three Tillamook County nests taken April 10 and 30, 1933, and May 

 14, 19x9, each with eight eggs. He also has records of one nest near 

 Mulino, Clackamas County, on May n, 1912., containing eight eggs, a 

 second with ten eggs on May 2.2., 1913, and a third with eight eggs on 

 April 2.7, 1914. Jewett found nests in Clackamas County, on April 2.8, 

 1903, May 3, 1908, and June 2., 192.1, each containing six eggs. 



The Sooty Grouse reverses the usual bird migration procedure. Al- 

 though it does not migrate in the commonly accepted sense of the term, 

 there is a seasonal altitudinal movement. In the spring the birds come 

 down to the lower edge of the timber or to the openings about meadows 

 to nest. As soon as the young are able to fly well the parents lead them 

 into the mountains. There they spend the summer and fall months on 



