THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 159 



skirts of the Saskatchewan plains, and is found 

 throughout the woody districts of the fur countries, 

 haunting open glades and low thickets on the borders 

 of lakes*. 



Buonaparte thus details their manners. " The 

 Sharp-tailed Grouse is remarkably shy, living solitary, 

 or by pairs during summer, and not associating in 

 packs till autumn ; remaining thus throughout the 

 winter. They, of choice, inhabit what are called 

 the juniper plains, keeping among the small juni- 

 per bushes, which constitute their food. They are 

 usually seen on the ground, but when disturbed 

 fly to the highest trees. Their food in summer is 

 composed of berries, the various sorts of which they 

 eagerly seek : in winter they are confined to the 

 buds and tops of evergreens, or of birch and elder, 

 but especially poplar, of which they are very fond. 

 They are more easily approached in autumn than 

 when they inhabit large forests, as they then keep 

 alighting on the tops of the tallest poplars, beyond 

 the reach of an ordinary gun. When disturbed in 

 that position, they are apt to hide themselves in the 

 snow ; but Hearne informs us, that the hunter's 

 chance is not the better for that, for so rapidly do 

 they make their way beneath the surface, that they 

 often suddenly take wing several yards from the spot 

 where they entered, and almost always in a different 

 direction from that which is expected. 



" Like the rest of its kind, the sharp-tailed grouse 

 Northern Zoology. 



