NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 141 



the Pinal Mountains, near the head of Mineral Creek in Arizona and 

 about as abundant in the same localities on the San Pedro slope of the 

 Catalina Mountains, ranging up as high as 5,700 feet and as low as 

 4,000 feet throughout the year. It was generally met with in coveys 

 of six to a dozen birds. Prof. Ridgway describes an egg as plain 

 white, size, 1.2 1 x .90, and states that identification is very doubtful.* 



297. Dendragapus obseurus (Say.) [471.] 



Dnsky Grouse. 



Hab. Rocky Mountains, west to Wahsatch, north to Central Montana, south to New Mexico and 

 Arizona. 



The Dusky Grouse in its several geographical garbs is distributed 

 chiefly throughout the wooded and especially the evergreen regions of 

 the United States, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific and north- 

 ward into British America. In the mountains of Colorado this species 

 is found on the border of timber line throughout the year, going above 

 in the fall for their principal food — grasshoppers. In summer its flesh 

 is said to be excellent, but when frost has cut short their diet of insects 

 and berries they feed on spruce needles and their flesh acquires a strong 

 flavor. In its habits it resembles the Rufied Grouse. It nests on the 

 the ground, often under shelter of a hollow log or projecting rock, with 

 merely a few pine needles scratched together on which the eggs are 

 laid. The eggs are bufi" or cream color, marked all over with small 

 round spots of umber-brown, but generally more numerous toward the 

 greater end ; eight to fifteen are laid ; average size 1.98 x 1.43. 



297a. Dendragapus obseurus fuliglnosus Ridgw. [471a.] 



Sooty Grouse. 



Hab. Mountains near the Pacific coast from Sitka, south to California. 



A darker colored bird than D. obseurus. 



Mr. A. W. Anthony records this Grouse as abundant in Wash- 

 ington county, in the northern part of Oregon.f He states that in the 

 winter the bird remains high up in the firs and is very seldom seen. 

 At the first indication of spring the males begin to " hoot." This is 

 not dissimilar to the " booming " of the Prairie Hen, and when uttering 

 these love notes the bird may usually be seen about fifty or seventy-five 

 feet from the ground in a thick fir. The note is repeated from five to 

 seven times. Mr. Anthony says : " This Grouse is an accomplished 

 ventriloquist ; I have often looked for an hour for one supposed to be 

 fifty yards in front of me to find it as far in the rear. Nests found in 

 May contained from five to seven eggs. A set of seven eggs of this 

 bird in the collection of Capt. B. F. Goss, was taken June ist, 1887, at 



* Manual of North American Birds, p. 194. 



t Auk., Vol. Ill, p. 164. Field notes on the Birds of Washington County, Oregon. 



