LAND BIRDS. 235 
clearing on a small rock ridge near Benson Brook. Mr. Kneutson, of Park 
Place, reported July 20, that the Grouse nested regularly at his clearing 
and that several broods of young had recently been seen there. He also 
said that during the previous fall he had found them very plentiful and tame 
at the clearing at McCargoe Cove. The Malone boys at Menagerie Light 
House reported these birds to be quite common breeders at the clearing 
when the old town stood near the head of Siskowit Bay (Max M. Peet, 
Adams’ Rep. Mich. Geol. Surv. 1908, p. 347). 
It is worthy of remark that both A. B. Covert and Dr. Morris Gibbs 
long ago stated their belief that this species occurred, at least as a winter 
visitor, in parts of the Upper Peninsula. Dr. Gibbs has the following 
statement in his notes written many years ago: “The Rev. E. H. Day, 
pastor of the M. E. church at Cadillac, informs Mr. A. B. Covert and me that 
this species is not rare in the Northern Peninsula. He lived on the meat 
of this bird some time while an Indian missionary a good many years ago 
[probably on Keweenaw Point].” In Forest and Stream (Vol. VIII, 241) 
G. A. Stockwell says, alluding to this species, “An occasional visitor to 
Lower Michigan; more frequent in the Upper Peninsula; variety colum- 
bianus is confined to the eastern shore of Lake Michigan and is extremely 
rare.” The latter part of Stockwell’s statement remains unexplained. 
So far as can be learned no specimen of the Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse 
has ever been taken in any part of Michigan. It is possible that the ordinary 
prairie form of the Sharp-tail (P. phas. campestris) may have occurred 
at one time over a part of the Lower Peninsula, but that, as this bird, unlike 
the Prairie Chicken, retires rapidly before civilization, it has now become 
extinct. MclIlwraith (Birds of Ontario, 1894, 180) says: ‘The Sharp- 
tail is abundant near Winnipeg, from which point it has reached the 
Hamilton market. It is also reported by Mr. Bampton as being found at 
Sault Ste. Marie (Canada).’”? Doubtless reference is made here to the 
northern form, the same found on Isle Royale. 
In habits the Sharp-tail is not very unlike the Prairie Chicken, but it is 
less often found in entirely open ground, preferring the edges of the forest 
and particularly the brush slopes of an uneven country. The nest is placed 
on the ground; the eggs, six to twelve, “varying from olive-buffy to deep 
brown, often plain, but usually more or less speckled with dark brown, 
and averaging 1.70 by 1.23 inches” (Ridgway). 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Tarsus feathered to base of toes; tail of eighteen feathers, the middle pair in the male 
projecting an inch or more beyond the rest; no elongated feather tufts on sides of neck. 
General distribution of colors much as in the Prairie Chicken, including the light buffy 
chin, throat and cheeks, with the dark stripe beneath the eye and the blackish patch 
below the cheek; under parts, however, whitish or very pale buffy, with numerous v-shaped 
dusky spots on breast, sides and flanks, but no distinct bars except on a narrow belt at 
base of neck, and sometimes on the flanks; lower breast and belly mostly pure white and 
unspotted; upper parts mottled black, buff and white, the wing-coverts with numerous 
large round or oval white spots, and the scapulars usually with sharp white shaft-streaks; 
tail-feathers mostly whitish, only the two middle pairs mottled and barred with black, 
rusty and white. Female similar, but smaller, the middle tail-feathers much shorter. 
The above description will answer equally well for the typical Sharp-tailed Grouse 
(P. p. phasianellus) of the interior_of British America, and the Prairie Sharp-tail (P. p. 
campestris) of the plains of the United States. The latter, according to Ridgway, is 
light-colored, ‘(the general tone of the upper parts buffy, and grayish or light brownish 
of various shades always predominating over black markings, the white markings on 
scapulars and wings not conspicuously contrasted with the general color.” On the other 
hand, the northern form P. p. phasianellus, ‘‘is very dark colored, with black or dusky 
largely predominating on upper parts, the white scapular streaks and wing spots showing 
in strong relief.” 
