132 GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 



KEY TO SPECIES OF PEDICECETES. 



1. Ground color buffy grayish ....... columbianus, p. 132. 



1'. Ground color rusty or yellowish brown .... campestris. p. 132. 



308a. Pedioecetes phasianellus columbianus (Ord). CO- 

 LUMBIAN SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 



under 



with 



throat white. Length : 15-19, wing 8.50-9.00, tail 4.00-5.50. 



Distribution. Breeds in northern part of Great Basin region, east to 

 Montana and Wyoming, and north from Utah, Nevada, and northeastern 

 California to central portion of Alaska. 



Nest, A hollow in the ground, lined with dried grass and feathers. 

 Eggs: 11 to 14, creamy buff to olive brown, usually lightly spotted with 

 reddish brown. 



Nowhere so abundant as the pinnated grouse, the sharp-tailed has 

 a wider range over more unsettled country and will probably last 

 longer, especially in the northern part of its range. While a prairie 

 or plains bird, it is usually flushed from a berry patch, low bushes 

 beside a creek, a stubble field, or sagebrush. Its finely mottled 

 plumage makes it very inconspicuous, and its tendency is to lie low 

 and be 3 flushed at fatally close quarters. 



Though the grouse usually keep well hidden in summer, in winter 

 when their plumage has become dense and their feet and legs rabbit- 

 like, they may be seen crossing the fields on top of the snow or get- 

 ting their breakfast of buds from the tops of trees and tall bushes. 

 When the weather is cold and the snow.deep and soft they oftep 

 roost under the snow like the ruffed grouse, and come out in the 

 morning fifteen or twenty feet from where they entered the white 

 surface at night. 



In spring the males have a loud cackling note, besides a scraping 

 sound produced apparently by opening and closing their rigid tail 

 feathers. 



VERNON BAILEY. 



308b. P. p. campestris Ridgw. PKAIBIE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 

 Similar to columbianus, but ground color much lighter, prevailing shade 

 rusty or yellowish brown ; under parts main- 

 ly whitish, and dark breast washed with 

 whitish. 



Distribution. Breeds on plains and prairies 

 in Transition and Upper Sonoran zones from 

 Manitoba south to New Mexico, and from 

 Wisconsin and Illinois west to the Rocky 

 Mountains. 



X*. - On the ground. Eggs : 11 to 14, 

 creamy butt' to pale olive brown, slightly 

 spotted. 



