100 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



a very close sitter. A slight hollow, usually scratched out on the upper 

 side of a bunch of grass, if the nest is placed on a hillside, is fairly lined 

 with dry grass, of which there is ordinarily an abundance to be found 

 in the vicinity, and this constitutes the nest. A few feathers from the lower 

 parts of the bird are usually mixed in among the eggs, each one of which is 

 often imbedded about two-thirds in its own mould and does not touch the 

 others. Once only did I find the eggs placed on top of each other, eight in 

 the lower and five in the upper layer. 



Incubation lasts about twenty-one days, the female attending to this duty 

 exclusively, the males keeping by themselves, usually in small parties of from 

 three to five, frequenting the higher hills and edges of the table lands in the 

 vicinity of the nests. I do not believe that this Grouse is polygamous. 



At Camp Harney I have found eggs of this subspecies as late as June 18, 

 and as a rule they nested fully from four to six weeks later there than at 

 Fort Lapwai. The female is exceedingly devoted to her young brood, and 

 I have seen one boldly attack my dog, who accidentally happened to run 

 into a young covey about a week old, while I was riding along one of the 

 tributaries of Lapwai Creek, in the latter part of May, 1871. 



But one brood is raised in a season. The young are active, handsome 

 little creatures, and able to use their legs at once on leaving the shell. They 

 are at first fed mostly on insects, young grasshoppers and crickets forming 

 the principal portion of their bill of fare. The former are always abundant 

 and easily obtained; later, when the young are able to fly, the mother leads 

 them to the creek bottoms, where they find an abundance of berries and 

 browse. They are especially fond of the seeds of the wild sunflower, which 

 grows very abundantly in some places, and when these are ripe, many of 

 these birds can be found in the vicinity where these plants grow. 



The habits of the Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse vary very materially 

 in different portions of the country where I have met with them. At Fort 

 Klamath, Oregon, where they are rather rare, I -have found them inhabiting 

 decidedly marshy and swampy country, and keeping close to, if not in the 

 edges of, the pine timber throughout the year. At Fort Custer, M'-ntana, 

 this Grouse, during the winter, was much more arboreal than terrestrial in 

 its habits, moving around on the limbs of the large cottonwood trees as 

 unconcernedly as on the ground; spending in this way almost all their time, 

 except when feeding. At Harney, Oregon, and Lapwai, Idaho, the}' might be 

 frequently seen in small trees and bushes which grow along the creeks, but 

 scarcely ever in large trees, of which there was an abundance. Here, they 

 uttered very few notes at any time, while at Fort Custer I have frequently 

 heard them cackling in the tall cottonwoods which grew along the Big Horn 

 River bottom, before I had approached within several hundred yards of them, 

 evidently giving notice to other birds in the vicinity of my coming. 



This fine game bird is decreasing very rapidly throughout its range. It 

 does not seem to prosper in the vicinity of man, and as the country is be- 



