98 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
which differs from it only in having the tail feathers 
entirely black, being devoid of the broad terminal bar 
of orange on the tail, and having the upper tail coverts, 
which are all black in Canadensis, tipped with white. 
With the exception of this slight difference, both varie- 
ties are alike in habits and make the vast and silent forests 
their homes. The Franklin variety is so highly prized. 
by the Indians of Oregon and Washington Territory that 
they call it the Tyee Kulla-Kulia, or chief bird, for they 
consider it to have no peer, judged from a gastronomical 
point of view. Being exceedingly tame and unsuspicious, 
large numbers of this bird are destroyed by the red men 
by simply knocking them down with a stick, or shooting 
them from their perches; and if they wish to capture 
them alive they merely put a noose on the end of a long 
pole and slip it over their heads. Their flesh is not 
very palatable in winter, owing to the character of their 
food, which is mainly composed of fir and spruce buds, 
as these give it an acrid taste. his flavor. is much appre- 
ciated by some persons, however, as they consider it 
rather ‘gamey”—the very thing most desired in wild 
birds. The Franklin variety is the commonest member of 
its sub-family in the spruce forests along the shores of the 
Northern Pacific Ocean, and so abundant is it in August 
and September that a person may easily bag fifteen or 
twenty brace ina day. I do not know of any wild bird 
that has so little fear of man, except one, for the mothers, 
even when their chicks are with them, will run ahead of 
him for some distance, and, when alarmed, merely jump 
into the first bushes they meet. I have occasionally shot 
them in September and October with a revolver, and 
also killed one with a stick or a stone. Their tame- 
ness is, in fact, almost stupid, for even when shot 
at they will not always rise; and when they do, they 
may merely fly to the first convenient tree, where all can 
be bagged, if the lower are brought down first. 
