124 LAND BIRDS 



297 a. SOOTY GROUSE. — Dendragapus obscurus 

 fulig^nosus. 



Family: The Grouse, Partridges, Quails, etc. 



Length: Adult male 20.00-23.00; adult female 16.00-19.00. 



Adult Male : Upper parts blackish slate-color, finely mottled with gray 

 and brown ; tail black, with or without gi'ay border on end ; under 

 parts very dark slate-color. 



Adult Female : Similar to male, but much smaller ; upper parts washed 

 with dark rusty, and indistinctly barred with sooty brown. 



Yirung : Upper parts rusty brown, mottled with sooty and buflf ; under 

 parts gray, more or less spotted with black. 



Downy Young : Above, brown, white, and black mixed, foi'miug irregu- 

 lar stripes on the back and head ; under parts grayish white or light 



^ buffy gray. 



Geographical Distribution : The Coast Range from Alaska through Cali- 

 fornia in the timbered Transition and Boreal zone. 



Breeding Range : Nearly coincident with Geographical Distrihution. 



Breeding Season : May and June. 



Nest : A hollow under the side of a log or bush, scantily lined with grass. 



Eggs : 7 to 10 ; cream, thickly spotted with shades of brown. Size 

 1.78 X 1.33. 



The Sooty Grouse is one of the largest and hand- 

 somest of its family. It haunts the coniferous forests of 

 the Sierra Nevada, and rears its brood in security in 

 timber too dense for the hunter. Well it knows that in 

 silence and statuesque rigidity lies its safety, and when 

 pursued it takes to a tree, where its sooty plumage 

 makes it seem like a bump on a branch, rather than a 

 bird. Let it guess, however, that its presence is dis- 

 covered and like a flash it is gone, cackling like a 

 frightened hen and " whirring " like a small cyclone, 

 down into the cover of the underbrush. 



" The love-making of the male is marked by all the 



