630 



BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



Baford, duriug the second season, we soon entered a favorable tract 

 where the birds were tolerably common, and where several specimens 

 were secured. At this time, the last week of June, the chicks were 

 already flying smartly, having attained on an average the size of quails. 

 The birds were traced to the mouth of the Milk Elver. Further west 

 and north, the country seems to be too open for them, and no more were 

 noticed. 



It is a great mistake to suppose that this bird feeds entirely upon 

 sage, as has been repeatedly asserted. A number of young birds which 

 I opened, shot near the mouth of the Milk River, had the craw full of 

 some kind of small aquatic beetle, which they had gleaned from a marshy 

 spot near by, with only traces here and there of vegetable matter. 

 Others had the crop stufifed with grasshoppers. 



List of specimens. 



PEDICECETES PHASIANELLUS COLUMBIAN US, {Onl) Coucs. 

 ■ Sharp-tailed Grouse; "Prairie Chicken." 



The whole of the region surveyed during my connection with the Com.- 

 mission lies bejond the range of the true Prairie hen {Cupidonia cupido)] 

 while the Sage-cock,^ as just said, is confined to a limited portion of the 

 Missouri country in the latitude of 49°. This leaves the field clear to 

 the Sharp tailed Grouse, which replaces the Prairie-hen, and abounds 

 throughout the region from the Eed Eiver to the Eocky Mountains. In 

 the " Birds of the Northwest", I carefully traced the general distribution 

 of the species, particularly along the line where it inosculates with the 

 range of the cupido. To this account I would refer for particulars not 

 here given, as well as for a careful description of the various changes of 

 plumage and other points, to give which would exceed the due bounds 

 of the present article. 



In the latitude of Pembina, the Chickens begin to lay the latter part 

 of May or first of June. The first two weeks of the latter month are at 

 the height of the laying and setting season. The earliest egg I pro- 

 cured was one cut from the parent June 4 ; but within a day or two 

 a full set of eleven was found. Thirteen was the largest number se- 

 cured in any one clutch ; the smallest, among those in which incubation 

 had progressed, was five. Average measurement of thirty specimens is 



