THE DUSKY GROUSE. 129 
Mountains, and a person fond of slaughter may bag most 
of them, owing to their tameness and unsuspicious na- 
ture. Some western sportsmen say that the hen has 
two broods in a season, if the spring opens early and the 
weather is fine, but that the second brood rarely numbers 
more than seven or eight, or about one-half the first. 
The chicks are able to fly when they are three weeks old, 
and are strong enough in August to look after them- 
selves. When they are with the mother she takes them 
to the creek bottoms late in the afternoon, and there 
they may be found during the evening and early morn- 
ing. If they are scattered, they lie well to a dog, and 
as they rise only as they are flushed, the majority, if not 
all, may be brought to bag, for, though swift on the 
wing, they fly straight ahead. 
The Indians of some portions of the West have such 
a superstitious reverence for this bird during its mat- 
ing season that they will not injure it, even when 
they are suffering from hunger, for fear it might bring 
them ‘‘ bad medicine;” but these scruples disappear later 
on, when the young are in prime condition, for they then 
capture them in every possible way, from snaring to 
shooting. They often follow single birds or small coveys 
by tracking them in snow, and when the footsteps end 
they look for the fugitives in the trees, though often 
without success, owing to the harmony of hue existing 
between them and the foliage amid which they seek 
shelter. ‘Two varieties of this species are supposed to 
exist in the West, yet the difference between them is 
slight, though perhaps sufficient to give them a varietal 
name. The variety distinguished as fuliginosus, which 
is the one indigenous to Oregon, Washington Territory, 
British Columbia, and Alaska, is darker than the others, 
and is plumbaceous beneath, without any white borders to 
the feathers, except about the flanks and vent. The 
head is a dusky black, the tarsi are lead-colored, the 
