408 



PEDICECETES PHASIANELLUS VAR. COLUMBIANUS. 



List of specimens. 



Lieutenant Warren's Expedition.— hiW, Fort Union ; 5421, 5422, mouth of Vermilion 

 Elver ; 5442, 5443, Fort Pierre. 



Later Expeditions.— 5iZ^, Wyoming; 60463, Le Boutd Creek; 61792-3, Port Nenf 

 River, Idaho. 



The nomenclature of the Sharp-tailed Grouse became somewhat involved when it 

 was found necessary to distinguish by name the two geographical races which consti- 

 tirte the species. Prior to 1661 there was supposed to be but a single kind, the Tetrao 

 phasianellus of authors. At that time examination of numerous si)ecimensfrom Arctic 

 America, and their comparison with the ordinary bird of the United States, showed the 

 existence of two forms of Sharp-tailed Grouse, and the northern variety was published 

 by Dr. Suckley as a new species under the name of Pediocaetes Tcennicottii. The follow- 

 ing year, however, Mr. Elliot showed that this northern form was really the one upon 

 which Linnaeus originally based the name of Tetrao phananeUus, and that it was the 

 southern one, therefore, that required to be distinguished by a separate name. He 

 very properly adopted for the latter the term columbiamis, after Ord, whose bird was 

 the " Columbian Pheasant " of Lewis and Clarke, unquestionably our common Sharp- 

 tailed Grouse. Dr. Suckley and Jlr. Elliot, alike right in distinguishing the two varie- 

 ties, went too far in supposing thera to be different species ; for, as stated in the " Key," 

 p. 234, they are simply geographical races shading into each other, as I shall point 

 out more particularly in this article. To the northern, British American, form 

 belongs the name Tetrao pkasianelhis of Linnaeus, and of those early writers who drew 

 their inspiration from him, as well as the Pcdioewtes phasianellus of those late writers 

 whose notices are based upon the same bird. To the southern form, var. colunibianusi 

 belongs the name Tetrao pliasianellus, or Pediacetes phasianelhis, of those writers who 

 refer to the United States bird. Certain authors, however, obviously include hoth 

 forms in their articles; thus Bonaparte, in the American Ornitholof,'y, describes the 

 male from Arctic America, and figures the female var. columManus ironi the United 

 States ; while Richardson, whose account relates, of course, chiefly to the northern 

 bird, includes the southern in his statement that the species is found down to latitude 

 41° on the Missouri. 



But sncli bibliographical points, the establishing of which is a part 

 of the drudgery the closet naturalist must perform, have little or no 

 general interest, and 'n^willingly turn to a more inviting aspect of our 

 subject, the proper natural history of the Sharp-tailed Grouse. While 

 some descriptions of the colors of the bird have been minute even to 

 tediousness, no one, as it seems to me, has been sufficiently explicit iu 

 regard to certain points of structure which can only be satisfactorily 

 ascertained in examining the freshly-killed bird, or respecting the 

 changes of ijlumage. If, as I shall presently show, the egg-shell, which ex- 

 ists but a few days, is very differently colored at different periods of its 

 existence, what variation may we not expect to find in the coloration of 

 the bird itself, which lives for several years ? We will begin by noting 

 those differences which, owing to the operation of climatic influences, 

 subsist between the average bird of Arctic America and that of the 

 United States prairies. That these two are not distinct species, but 

 only geographical varieties of the same species, will be as evident to the 

 sportsman and amateur naturalist from their points of view as it is to 

 the technical scientist from his. 



The northern variety, or true plia.sianellus, is much darker* and more 

 heavily colored than its southern representative, var. columManus. 



* The eggs of this northern form differ from those of the southern in a manner analo- 

 gous to the difference in plumage, averaging decidedly darker and browner drab, some- 

 times attaining a chocolate-brown color, and showing greater tendency to spotting. 



