138 BIRD NAMES. [No. 39. 



picture, with blackish brown U-shaped and V-shaped markings 

 and touches of buff or light yellow-tan, the latter tint showing 

 most noticeably along upper sides of body, where the markings 

 are bolder and bar-like; the hairy feathers of the legs tinged 

 with grayish buff. 



Length seventeen to nineteen inches; extent twenty-six to 

 twenty-nine inches. 



This " chicken " is even more desirable, I think, than the pin- 

 nated kind (No. 38) for table use, and late in the season is a 

 favorite in other respects, lying close to the dog, and jumping 

 one or two at a time, instead of in a great " pack " a gun-shot 

 away. 



Eange, as given in Mr. Eidgway's Manual, 1887 : " Great 

 Plains of United States, north to Manitoba (?), east to Wisconsin 

 and northern Illinois, west to eastern Colorado, south to eastern 

 New Mexico." 



Until 1884 this grouse was regarded by every one as iden- 

 tical with Pedioomtes jphasiomellus columbianus, a variety whose 

 range Mr. Eidgway gives as " Northwestern United States, south 

 to northern California, Nevada, and Utah, east to western edge 

 of Great Plains in Montana, north, chiefly west of Eocky Moun- 

 tains (?) to Fort Yukon, Alaska." 



Our more eastern form (oampestris) differs from colwnibianus, 

 according to Mr. Eidgway, in having the " ground color above 

 more rusty or ochraceous." This difference, though interesting 

 to naturalists, is something that gunners need not bother their 

 heads with. The scientists themselves do not always agree 

 about these very nice distinctions. 



My. list of names was prepared before hearing of the above 

 distinction, but it will not be best to change it much now, the 

 two forms having until so very recently been referred to as one 

 and the same. Indeed, no satisfactory separation of these names 

 is possible under the circumstances. 



SHARP-TAILED GROUSE, or SHARP-TAIL: PIN-TAILED 

 GROUSE, or PIN-TAIL: in Hallock's Sportsman's Gazetteer, 1878, 

 SPRIG-TAIL : (No. 13, a duck, is also called Sharp-tail, Pin-tail, 



