234 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
especially by feeding with grain in severe winter weather, and by codperating 
with the sportsman and game warden in enforcing the law. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Tail of eighteen feathers, tarsus feathered to base of toes; side of neck with a tuft of 
narrow, elongate feathers, largely black, but more or less striped or margined with buff. 
Upper parts barred and checkered with black, buff and gray, the top of head showing 
most black and the feathers of crown somewhat elongated to form a crest; chin, upper 
throat and most of sides of head buffy white; a brown stripe from bill below eye, and a 
conspicuous dark patch half an inch lower; under parts from throat to tail regularly barred 
with brown or black and buff or buffy white, the buff deepest on lower neck and chest, 
the dark bars blackest on sides and flanks; tail-feathers brownish black, narrowly tipped 
with pure white, and barred with buff in the female, but without bars in the male (except 
sometimes on middle pair). The female also has the neck tufts much shorter than the 
male, and is somewhat smaller throughout, but otherwise there is little difference be- 
tween the sexes. 
Length of male 18 to 19 inches; wing 8.60 to 9.40; tail 4 to 4.30. Length of female 
17.50; wing 8.60 to 8.75; tail 3.60 to 4. 
126. Sharp-tailed Grouse. Pedicecetes phasianellus phasianellus (Linn.). 
(308) 
Synonyms: Spike-tail, Pin-tail, Prairie Chicken, Blackfoot, Northern Sharp-tailed 
Grouse.—Tetrao phasianellus, Linn., 1758, Forst., 1772, Gmel., Lath, and others.— 
ee kennicotti, Suckley, 1861.—Ped. phasianellus var. phasianellus, B. B. & R., 
1875. 
Scarcely to be confounded with any other grouse except the true Prairie 
Chicken, from which it differs as noted under that species. 
Distribution.—Central Alaska and northwestern British Columbia east 
through central Keewatin to central western Ungava, and south to Lake 
Superior and the Parry Sound district Ontario; casual east to Saguenay 
River, Quebec. (A. O. U. Check-list, 1910.) 
Considerable uncertainty has existed with regard to the occurrence of 
this species within our limits, but the question has been set at rest by the 
recent expeditions (1904, 1905) from the University of Michigan to Isle 
Royale* in Lake Superior, where this bird was found to be resident and 
breeding in some numbers. According to Mr. Norman A. Wood, who was 
in charge of the party which visited Isle Royale in the summer of 1904, 
“A family of this species was seen at close range by Mr. Ruthven, near 
Siskowit Bay, Isle Royale, August 29, 1904. The residents told me that 
the ‘Prairie Chicken’ lived at Siskowit Bay throughout the year. The 
large clearing (about 500 acres) about the old mines seems to furnish the 
favorable conditions for them.” 
Three specimens taken on Isle Royale in the summer of 1905 were sub- 
mitted to the Division of Biological Survey of the U. 8. Department of 
Agriculture at Washington, and were identified by H. C. Oberholzer as the 
typical northern form, Pedicecetes phasianellus phasianellus. This of 
course is just what would be expected, since Isle Royale lies only eighteen 
miles from the north shore of Lake Superior. Mr. Peet, who accompanied 
the 1905 expedition, made the following notes on this species: Found at 
Rock Harbor and Siskowit Bay by our party and was reported at Wash- 
ington Harbor by the residents, who called it a pheasant. On July 25 a 
female accompanied by three young, about half grown, was found in a 
+Isle Royale belongs to Keweenaw county, Michigan. 
