SHARP-TAILED GKOUSE, ETC. 175 



fight, but if the youngster proves game, and stands his 

 ground, he is soon admitted as an equal, and bows to his 

 confreres and to the admiring pullets -with as much 

 dignity as though he were an old hand at the business. 

 Only the cowards are kept oat of the charmed ring, and 

 these, I believe, go without a mate until another spring; 

 but, like all other good, things, the time of courtship 

 must come to an end. One by one the dancers stop their 

 evolutions, one by one they go to the females, and each 

 walks a few times about his inamorata; then, together, 

 the pair leaves the band, and, like Hiawatha and Minne- 

 haha, walks slowly through the forest to make a new 

 home. The dance may last for several days, as all do not 

 participate at one time; but at its close the breeding- 

 season has fairly commenced, and the few males who 

 have not secured mates remain by themselves until 

 the fall pack. Sharp-tailed grouse are rarely, if ever, 

 gregarious, and the male proves a faithful and helpful 

 husband. 



As the female feels the maternal instinct, and the time 

 of incubation approaches, she selects a place for a nest — 

 not in the grove of quaking aspens, not among the lordly 

 pines, nor yet among the tall, rank grasses of the upland 

 valleys, but in some thicket of wild roses, in some clump 

 of purple-blossomed arctostaphyllos, where the low-hung 

 foUage forms a perfect screen, she lays her eggs. The 

 place of her choice is not far from a stream. While she 

 is upon the nest the male is never far distant. He is a 

 warrior-sentinel, and, while I do not know that he ever 

 relieves her in her duty, he not infrequently brings her 

 some dainty morsel that he has picked up on his rambles. 

 The nest is a rude affair, constructed of coarse grasses and 

 dried ' leaves scratched together, sometimes in a slight 

 depression, but more frequently upon the level ground. 

 From twelve to fifteen eggs are deposited. They are 



