SHARP-TAILED GROUSE 



265 



"Returning to the newly hatched chicks, we will note 

 their characteristics as they progress toward maturity. 

 The down in which they are clothed when hatched 

 is rather dingy yellow, mottled on the crown, back and 

 wings with warm brown and black; it extends to the 

 toes, but leaves a bare strip along the hind edge of the 

 tarsus; the bill and feet are light brown. They are 

 about as large as bantam chickens of the same age, 

 and very pretty little things, indeed. They are very 

 quick in their movements, scrambling to squat and 

 hide on the least alarm, even at this early age. . . . 



"Throughout the region of the Red, Pembina and 

 Souris or Mouse rivers, where I observed the birds 

 during the summer, I found them mostly in the under- 

 brush along the streams, which they seemed to seek 

 instinctively as affording the best shelter and protec- 

 tion, as well as plenty of food. Where they were most 

 abundant I frequently observed the 'scratching holes' 

 in the bare earth among the bushes, where they resorted 

 to dust themselves, and, most probably, in the instances 

 of ungrown coveys, to roost. Late in the summer and 

 in September, those who cared to shoot the tender 

 young found them to lie well to a dog; in fact, to 

 lie so close that they were flushed with difficulty with- 

 out one. No game birds could be tamer or more readily 

 destroyed. Except when temporarily scattered by 

 molestation, the coveys kept close together, and only 

 occasionally left the covert to stray on the adjoin- 

 ing prairie. They appeared to be feeding chiefly on 

 wild-rose seeds, and those of another kind of plant 



