258 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



grass and the leaves of various plants, form their 

 chief food. I have seen them feeding by hundreds 

 in the alfalfa patches of the ranchmen, and have found 

 their crops and throats stuffed with the green leaves, 

 together with a few of the seeds. Almost everything 

 in the nature of berries, insects, seeds and green leaves 

 is devoured by this bird. 



In the winter and autumn, the sharp-tailed grouse 

 inhabiting a prairie country, spend most of their time 

 in the river bottoms, among or close to the willow and 

 cottonwood trees, on the buds of which they feed at 

 this season, and it is not uncommon to see large flocks 

 of them roosting among the branches of these trees 

 in the early morning, apparently too much chilled to 

 notice the approach of man. 



Mr. E. E. Thompson, in his "Birds of Manitoba," 

 describes in some detail the habits of the sharp-tailed 

 grouse in winter. He says that it spends the winter 

 nights in the snow, which is always soft and penetrable 

 in the woods, though out on the plains it is beaten into 

 drifts of ice-like hardness. 



"As the winter wanes, it is not uncommon for a snow 

 storm to be accompanied by sleet. The storm always 

 drives the chickens into the drifts, and afterward levels 

 the holes they formed in entering. The freezing of the 

 sleet then forms a crust, which resists all attempts at 

 escape on the part of the birds, many of which, accord- 

 ing to the account of hunters, are starved and thus 

 perish miserably. I met with a single instance of this 

 myself. 



