[ill] BIRDS OF OREGON 



the more open ridges, feeding on ripening berries and insects, particularly 

 grasshoppers, which are abundant at times. With the coming of winter, 

 the grouse take to the heavy timber, feeding on the buds and needles of 

 coniferous trees and remaining hidden in the thick tops of the trees. 



When flushed from the ground, the Sooty Grouse leaves with a star- 

 tling whirr of wings, making straight for the nearest timber and swerving 

 sharply upward to land in a tree where it is expert in concealing itself 

 either by remaining motionless or crouching lengthways on a heavy 

 limb. When flushed from the trees on a ridge, the bird pitches straight 

 downward out of the tree at almost bullet speed, to land in another tree 

 far below. 



Sierra Grouse: 



Dendragapus fuliginosus sierrae Chapman 



DESCRIPTION. Similar to Sooty Grouse but paler and with a heavier vermiculation 

 above. It has a whiter throat and paler under parts and practically lacks neck 

 tufts. Downy young, sz%e, nest y and eggs: About same as those of Sooty Grouse. 

 DISTRIBUTION. General: Southern Cascades and Warner Mountains of Oregon south 

 into California to southern Sierras. In Oregon: Permanent resident of mountains of 

 Lake and Klamath Counties. (See Figure 4.) 



IN HABITS and behavior, the Sierra Grouse is entirely like the Sooty 

 Grouse. Typical birds of this subspecies are found in Oregon, so far as 

 we have been able to ascertain from a careful examination of numerous 

 specimens, only in Lake County. There in the Warner Mountains these 

 grouse match very closely birds from the central Sierras. From the ex- 

 treme southern end of the Cascades, our specimens are somewhat inter- 

 mediate but most of them are closer to birds from Mount Hood, which 

 is the type locality of the Sooty Grouse, than they are to those of the 

 Sierras. We have one bird from Keno, Klamath County, that is inter- 

 mediate but closer to the Warner Mountain birds, while others might be 

 placed in either form. Chapman (1904), in naming this form, commented 

 on this intergradation on this area as follows: 



Several of the specimens, in an admirable series collected by Major Bendire, at Fort Klamath, 

 are referable to sierrae rather than to fuliginosus, though not typical of the former. Other 

 examples in this series, however, are much nearer to fuliginosus. 



Despite the fact that the 1931 Check-List states that this subspecies is 

 found north to Washington, we have been unable, even with careful col- 

 lecting, to obtain a single specimen nearer to sierrae anywhere north of 

 Fort Klamath. Although we have few specimens from the Siskiyous 

 south of the Rogue River, it would not be surprising to find some evidence 

 of intergradation in an extensive series. Those that we have are closer 

 to fuliginosus. 



