SHARP-TAILED GROUSE 265 
“Returning to the newly hatched chicks, we will note 
their characteristics as they progress toward maturity. 
The down in which they are clothed when hatched 
is rather dingy yellow, mottled on the crown, back and 
wings with warm brown and black; it extends to the 
toes, but leaves a bare strip along the hind edge of the 
tarsus; the bill and feet are light brown. They are 
about as large as bantam chickens of the same age, 
and very pretty little things, indeed. They are very 
quick in their movements, scrambling to squat and 
hide on the least alarm, even at this early age... . 
“Throughout the region of the Red, Pembina and 
Souris or Mouse rivers, where I observed the birds 
during the summer, I found them mostly in the under- 
brush along the streams, which they seemed to seek 
instinctively as affording the best shelter and protec- 
tion, as well as plenty of food. Where they were most 
abundant I frequently observed the ‘scratching holes’ 
in the bare earth among the bushes, where they resorted 
to dust themselves, and, most probably, in the instances 
of ungrown coveys, to roost. Late in the summer and 
in September, those who cared to shoot the tender 
young found them to lie well to a dog; in fact, to 
lie so close that they were flushed with difficulty with- 
out one. No game birds could be tamer or more readily 
destroyed. Except when temporarily scattered by 
molestation, the coveys kept close together, and only 
occasionally left the covert to stray on the adjoin- 
ing prairie. They appeared to be feeding chiefly on 
wild-rose seeds, and those of another kind of plant 
