No.l.] M'CHESNEY ON BIEDS OF DAKOTA. 85 



This Grouse is found here in small numbers throughout the entire year. 

 The region is not favorable for the increase of this bird, for, aside from 

 those destroyed by the Indians in season and out of season, the destniction 

 of the young by birds of prey and of the nests by prairie fires, the only 

 food it can find duiing the winter consists of a few scattered rosebuds. 



CuPiDONiA CUPIDO, (L.) Bd. — Pinnated Grouse ; Prairie Ren. 



The sexes are alike in color. 



Neck -witli a peculiar tuft of loose, lengtliencd, tapering feathers, beneath which is 

 a patch of bare, brightly colored skin, capable of great distention ; tail short, rounded, 

 of eighteen stiffish, non-tapering feathers; feet barely feathered to the toes. Length 

 16-18 inches; wing 8-9; tail about 5. Above, variegated with black, brown, tawny, 

 or ochrey, and white, the latter especially on the wing ; below, pretty regularly barred 

 with dark brown, white, and tawny; throat tawny, a little speckled or not; vent and 

 under tail-coverts mostly white ; quills dark brown, with white spots on the outer 

 webs ; tail dark brown, Avith narrow or imperfect white or tawny bars and tips. 

 $ smaller, with shorter neck-tufts. 



Missouri Eiver, above Fort Eandall, and probably as high as Fort 



Sully, D. T. 



During the fall of 1876, I observed the Pinnated Grouse here for the 

 first time, and apparently it was more common than the preceding 

 species, and in accordance with the history of the two birds I antici- 

 pated the speedy disappearance of the Common Sharp-tailed, but this 

 has not occurred, and I saw only two or three specimens of the Pmnated 

 Grouse during the season of 1877, and I am informed none were taken 

 during the season of 1878, so that at the present time C. cupido is not 

 found here, while P. ijliasianellus is the characteristic Grouse of this 



region. 



This experience with the two Grouse is at variance with that of Sur- 

 geon J. F. Head, U. S. A., Minnesota record, as given in Professor 

 Coues's "Birds of the :Jsrorthwest," and also with that of many other good 

 observers, and I can only explain the matter on grounds of the unfitness 

 of the localitv as regards shelter, and the fact that the country has not 

 been settled and the soil sufficiently cultivated to fiu-nish them their 

 favorite food ; when these conditions shall have been removed, I antici- 

 pate the appearance of G. cupido in this region to displace P.phasianeUus. 



BONASA UMBELLUS UMBELLOIDES, (Dougl.) Bd.—Poclcy Mouutam 



Buffed Grouse. 



Sexes are nearly alike in color. t. i i 



The Eastern representative of this bird is known as the Partridge m New England 

 and the Middle States, and as the Pheasant in the Southern States. Sides of neck 

 with a tuft of numerous (15-30) broad, soft, glossy-black feathers; head with a full 

 soft crest ; tail about as long as the wings, amply rounded, of (normally) 18 soft broad 

 feathers ; feet naked below. Length 16-18 inches ; wing 7-8. Slaty-gray is the pre- 

 vailing color in this variety. 



Eocky Mountain region. 



