124 LAND BIRDS 



297 c. SIERRA SOOTY GROUSE. — Dendragapus 

 obscurus sierrae. 



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 gray 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. 

 Young: Upper parts rusty brown, mottled with sooty and buff; under 



parts gray, more or less spotted with black. 

 Downy Young : Above, brown, white, and black mixed, forming irregu- 

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



buffy gray. 

 Geographical Distribution : California in the timbered Transition and 



Boreal zone, north to southern Oregon. 

 Breeding Range : Nearly coincident with Geographical Distribution. 

 Breeding Season : May and June. 



Nest : A hollow under the side of a log or bash, 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 



