The Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse 195 



those of the pinnated grouse. During the love- 

 making season it holds similar gatherings at 

 dawn, and performs the same curious antics, in- 

 termingled with furious battles for possession of 

 the females. The males also have well-developed 

 neck-sacs, which they inflate and exhaust like 

 the pinnated grouse. The sound produced, how- 

 ever, is more broken, and lacks the booming 

 volume so characteristic of the effort of the male 

 prairie-hen. Its range includes the eastern 

 Rocky Mountains, from Montana and Wyoming 

 to Oregon and Washington, northward and along 

 mountains to central Alaska. The nest and eggs 

 are hardly to be distinguished from those of the 

 prairie-hen ; the young are equally active, and 

 their food is about the same. At the approach 

 of cold weather they pack and become wilder. 

 After the winter has fairly set in, the packs take 

 to whatever timber they can find in their vicinity, 

 and while they may be seen perched in the dis- 

 tance, they will seldom allow a gun to approach 

 within range. When flushed, like its nearest kin, 

 it utters a croaking cluck, repeated several times. 



THE PRAIRIE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE 

 {P. p. compestris) 



So close is the resemblance between this and 

 the preceding race that a detailed description is 

 unnecessary. Its present range includes the 



