168 NESTS AND BOGS OF 



the head of Mineral Creek In Arizona and about as abundant in the same Iqcalities 

 on the San Pedro slope of the Catalina Mountains, ranging up as high as 5,700 feet 

 and as low as 4,000 feet throughout the year. It was generally met with in coveys of 

 six to a dozen birds. Mr. Otho C. Poling found this Partridge to le fairly common 

 in parts of the Wetstone, the Santa Rita, Patagonia, and Huachuca Mountains of 

 Southern Arizona. On July 15, 1890, he found a nest containing eight eggs; it was 

 situated under a dead limb of a pine tree on a hillside; sunken in the ground and 

 composed of grass stems, arched over, and the bird could only enter it by a long tun- 

 nel leading to it from under the limb with the grass growing around It. Mr. G. W. 

 Todd found a nest of the Massena Partridge containing ten eggs in Kinney county, 

 Texas, June 20, 1890. These are now in Mr. Thomas H. Jasckson's collection. West 

 Chester, Pa. The eggs are white and similar to those of the Bob-white, tlie majority 

 being more elongated. The average measurement of the eight eggs collected by 

 Mr. Poling, 1.26x.94 inches. 



297. DTISKY GROUSE. Dendraffapus ohscurus (Say.) Geog. Dist. — Rocky 

 Mountains, west to Wahsatch, north to Central Montana, south to New Mexico and 

 Arizona. 



The Dusky Grouse in its several geographical garbs is distributed chiefly 

 throughout the wooded and especially the evergreen regions of the United States, 

 from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific and northward in British America. In the 

 mountains of Colorado this species is found on the border of timber line throughout 

 the year, going above in the fall for their principal food — grasshoppers. In summer 

 its flesh is said to be excellent, but when frost has cut short their diet of insects and 

 berries, they feed on spruce needles and their flesh acquires a strong flavor. In its 

 habits it resembles the Ruffed Grouse. It nests on the ground, often under shelter 

 of a hollow log or projecting rock, with merely a few pine needles scratched together 

 on which the eggs are laid. The eggs are buff or cream color, marked all over with 

 small round spots of umber-brown, but generally more numerous toward the greater 

 end; eight to fifteen are laid; average size 1.98x1.42. 



297a. SOOTY GROUSE. Dendraffapus ohscurus fuUginosus Ridgw. Geog. 

 Dist. — Mountains near the Pacific coast from Sitka, south to California. 



A darker colored bird than D. ohscurus. Mr. A. W. Anthony records this Grouse 

 as abundant in Washington county, in the northern part of Oregon.* He states 

 that in the winter the bird remains high up in the firs and is very seldom seen. At 

 the first indication of spring the males begin to "hoot." This is not dissimilar to the 

 "booming" of the Prairie Hen, and when uttering these love notes the bird may 

 usually be seen about fifty or seventy-five feet from the ground in a thick fir. The 

 note is repeated from five to seven times. Mr. Anthony says: "This Grouse is an 

 accomplished ventriloquist; I have often looked for an hour for one supposed to be 

 fifty yards in front of me to find it as far in the rear." Nests found in May contained 

 from five to seven eggs. A set of seven eggs of this bird in the collection of the late 

 Captain B. F. Goss was taken June 1st, 1887, at Oakland, Oregon. The nest was 

 placed on the ground. The eggs are creamy buff, spotted and speckled with reddish 

 brown; the spots are small and scattered, most of them sharply defined; the measure- 

 ments of the seven eggs are as follows: 1.87x1.38, 1.81x1.33, 1.78x1.33, 1.86x1.37, 1.88 

 xl.36, 1.80x1.34, 1.83x1.35. 



• Auk, Vol. Ill, p. 164. Field notes on the Birds of Washington County, Oregron. 



