256 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



and strutting of the partridge, as well as the singing 

 of small birds." 



I have several times witnessed this dancing in No- 

 vember, just about the time that cold weather sets in, 

 and have seen it carried on for two hours, immediately 

 after sunrise, but have never been so fortunate as to get 

 close enough to the birds to hear their stamping sound 

 like a kettle drum. In the dances I have witnessed, 

 there was heard not only the crowing, of which Mr. 

 Thompson speaks, but also a sharp, high-pitched cackle, 

 each note being separated from the other by a percep- 

 tible interval. 



Some years ago I sent Major Bendire some notes 

 on this species, which I quote here : "This species is 

 partly migratory, and there is the very greatest dif- 

 ference in the habits of the birds in summer and winter. 

 As soon as the first hard frosts come in the autumn, the 

 birds seem to take to the timber and begin to feed on 

 the buds of the willow and the quaking aspen. At this 

 time they spend a large portion of their time in the 

 trees, and are very wild. In the Shirley Basin, in 

 western Wyoming, a locality where I have never seen 

 any of these birds in summer, they are abundant in 

 winter. At this season they live in quaking aspen 

 thickets, along the mountains, and there I have seen 

 hundreds of them roosting on top of a big barn, which 

 stands just at the edge of a grove of quaking aspen 

 timber. It was always easy in the morning, just after 

 sunrise, to step out of the house, and with a .22 caliber 



