204 University of California Fublications in Zoology \yoL. 24 



same place, the young ones the size of mountain quail (Oreortyx), 

 strong on the wing, and apparently well able to care for themselves. 

 On July 11 a cock bird was flushed from the heather at the edge of a 

 snow bank, far above the timber. Another was seen by Dixon at the 

 upper edge of the timber on Kirk's Mountain on July 17. No males 

 were heard hooting at any time. 



Of the two broods seen on July 23, one consisted of three young, 

 the second of but one. These birds were found in open, grassy patches, 

 close to dense and extensive thickets of prostrate balsam fir, that 

 afforded shelter from almost any enemy. The parent of the brood of 

 small young seen on July 11 was extremely solicitous for their safety. 

 She was not aggressive in her solicitude, however, as is the ruffed 

 grouse under similar circumstances, nor did she feign a broken wing 

 or other disability. She simply sat on the top of a thicket, obviously 

 greatly worried, clucking nervously to the chicks until they had reached 

 what she considered a safe distance, when she followed after through 

 the bushes. The larger young ones seen on July 23 were evidently ex- 

 pected to look after themselves to a great extent ; they were as wary 

 and resourceful as their parents. 



Five specimens were secured (nos. 39732-39736), two adult females 

 and a male and two females in juvenal plumage. These birds appear 

 to belong to the subspecies Bendragapus ohscurus flemingi, described 

 by Taverner (1914, p. 385), from TesUn Lake, one hundred and forty 

 miles north of the Stikine. This form is most nearly related to D. o. 

 richardsoni; it is widely different from fuliginosus and sitkensis, the 

 coastal subspecies. Richardsom anA flemingi zxe not "la.ooiQvs.'^ The 

 call note of the male bird is nol^ the loud, far-reaching hoot that is so 

 characteristic of fuliginosus and sitkensis, and also of the California 

 race, sierra&. In these latter subspecies the male bird has on each side 

 of the neck an area of bare skin that is brilliant yellow, greatly thick- 

 ened, and capable of wide distention, part of the hooting apparatus 

 and not highly developed in the non-hooting forms. (See Brooks, 

 1912, p. 252.) This is a structural difference of suffieient importance 

 to warrant the specific separation of these groups of grouse. "Whether 

 or not D. o. ohscurus of the southern Kocky Mountains is a hooter I 

 do not know, and any changes of nomenclature would hinge upon this 

 fact. 



Flemingi is described as differing from richardsoni in darker gen- 

 eral coloration and in having the tail rounded, not truncate. Both are 

 described as lacking a terminal tail band. The general dark colora- 



