HABITS OF PINNATED GROUSE. 199 



Pinnated grouse are very capricious in choice of sites on 

 which to place their nests ; solitude and vicinity to favourite 

 food or other causes, of which an outsider can know but 

 little, must be accepted as the probable reasons. However, 

 I have generally observed that a preference is shown for 

 those places where the prairie is covered with bunch-grass, 

 particularly if the subsurface is moist, and the neighbour- 

 hood not overstocked with cattle. This bird is easily 

 caused to desert her nest, whether the intrusion be com- 

 mitted by man or beast ; on such occasions a new nursery 

 is chosen and a second lot of eggs laid, but if misfortune 

 should deprive her of her brood after the young have left 

 the egg, all idea of raising a second family is laid aside, 

 and the chickless mother joins company with the first 

 similarly-situated unfortunate she may chance to meet. 

 Odd hen-birds, when found by the sportsman, are frequently 

 supposed to be barren, but in nine instances out of ten, I 

 am satisfied that some luckless cur dog, mink, or weasel 

 deserves the onus for the poor birds broodless lot. 



About the end of March the large flocks begin to break 

 up and divide into parties of twenty or thirty, each detach- 

 ment selecting a knoll on which to exhibit their fascinations 

 to the fair sex or select partners. On the first glint of 

 dawn the males utter their war-cry, and either wait to 

 receive their rivals, in love, or swiftly wing their way to 

 accept the challenge of some distant gallant. The fiercest 

 battles now ensue ; * nor is it only between two, for some- 



* Until a late date I believed these battles were a description of tour- 

 nament, in fact, all for show. However, this is not the case, and numbers 

 of the combatants get severely injured. 



