34 BENDIRE ox the Habits of the Sooty Grouse. [January 
Fort Lapwai, Idaho, on the Nez Percé Indian Reservation, and 
was told by both trappers and Indians that these birds did not 
remain there during the winter, in which belief I consequently 
shared at that time. I was also told that when a covey had 
been located in a tree, by being careful always to shoot the bird 
sitting lowest, the whole lot might be secured successfully. This 
may be so, but somehow it always failed with me; usually after 
the second shot, often even after the first, and certainly at the 
third, the remaining birds took wing, and generally flew quite a 
distance before alighting again, nearly always placing a deep 
canon between themselves and me. 
At Fort Lapwai, Idaho, in the early fall of 1870 and of 1871, on 
two or three occasions I found a few of these birds mixed in and 
feeding with large packs of the Sharp-tailed Grouse. This must, 
however, be considered as an unusual behavior, as I never noticed it 
anywhere else subsequently, although both species were equally 
abundant in other localities where I met them frequently in after 
years. The favorite locations to look for the Sooty Grouse during 
the spring and summer are the sunny, upper parts of the foot- 
hills, bordering on the heavier timbered portions of the moun- 
tains, among the scattered pines and the various berry-bearing 
bushes found in such situations and along the sides of canons. 
According to my observations these birds are scarcely ever found 
any distance within the really heavy timber. Inthe middle of the 
day they can usually be looked for with success amongst the 
deciduous trees and shrubbery found along the mountain streams in 
canons, especially if there is an occasional pine or fir tree mixed 
amongst the former. The cocks separate from the hens after 
incubation has commenced, I believe, and keep in little com- 
panies, say from four to six, by themselves, joining the young 
broods again in the early fall. At any rate I have more than once 
come on several cocks in June and July, without seeing a single 
hen amongst them. High rocky points near the edges of the 
main timber, amongst juniper and mountain mahogany thickets, 
are their favorite abiding-places at that time of year. The young 
chicks are kept by the hen for the first week or two in close prox- 
imity to the place where they were hatched, and not till they have 
attained two weeks’ growth will they be found along the willows 
and thickets bordering the mountain streams. Their food consists 
at first, principally of grasshoppers, insects, and tender plant tops, 
