SIERRA GROVSE 545 



(vermiculated) with pale day color or tawny brown ; some of scapulars, with 

 shaft streaks of white; tail chiefly brownish black, with more or less ashy ver- 

 mieulation toward base, and broadly tipped with ashy gray, this light band 

 sparingly flecked with brownish black; flight feathers brown, marked with bufEy 

 white on outer webs; margin and forward lining of wing mixed brown and buffy 

 white; axillars white; under surface of flight feathers dull brown; breast dark 

 brown, with broad irregular barring of pale clay color or dull white; fore pdrt 

 of belly bluish gray, sparingly marked with white; hinder part of belly mixed 

 pale bluish gray and dull white; sides of body and flanks like outer surface of 

 wing; lower tail coverts blackish brown tipped broadly with dull white; feather- 

 ing of tarsus grayish brown. Males: Total length "about 20.00-23.00" inches 

 (508-584 mm.) (Eidgway, 1900, p. 195) ; folded wing 8.86-9.52 (225-242) ; bUl 

 along eulmeu 0.72-0.88 (18.4-22.3) ; tarsus, 1.59-1.92 (40.4-48.8) (ten specimens 

 from California). Females: Total length "17.50-19.00" (444-482) (Ridgway, 

 loc. eit.) ; folded wing 7.68-8.70 (195-221) ; bill along culmen 0.68-0.78 (17.4- 

 19.7); tarsus 1.54-1.85 (39.0-47.0) (six specimens from California). Weight of 

 a male 2% pounds (1.25 kilograms) (Mus. Vert. Zool.). Juvenile plumage: Much 

 like that of adult female, but feathers of upper surface, wings and tail with 

 conspicuous shaft streaks of dull white; no gray bar at end of tail; gray patch 

 on belly lacking; chin extensively whitish; throat and breast pale buflfy or 

 white, more spotted than barred, with dark brown. Natal plumage: Upper 

 surface light yellowish brown, with considerable irregular admixture of black, 

 especially noticeable on top and sides of head and middle of back; under surface 

 buffy white, palest on throat and belly. 



Maeks roE FIELD IDENTIFICATION — Large size (next to largest of our grouse), 

 general dark bluish gray effect of coloration, and light band across tip of almost 

 square-ended tail (this often appearing whitish by contrast) (pi. 15). 



Voice — Of male in breeding season: a deep, wooden, far-carrying, ventrilo- 

 quial, unt, wuni, wunV, wunt', tu-wunt', vnuit, wwnt (Storer, MS) ; of female with 

 young: cackling and clucking notes; of both sexes: an alarm note fcufc, Tcuh 

 (Belding, 1879, p. 438). 



Nest — On dry ground, under shelter of brush, log or rock; a slight depression 

 sparingly lined with dry grasses, leaves, twigs, and, usually, a few feathers of 

 the female. 



Eggs — (In California) 5 to 7, ordinarily ovate in shape, measuring in inches, 

 1.98 to 2.14 by 1.34 to 1.46 (in millimeters, 50.4 to 54.2 by 34.1 to 37.2), and 

 averaging 2.03 by 1.40 (51.6 by 35.5) (two sets, twelve eggs, from California). 

 Ground-color pale creamy buff, with small round spots and dots of reddish 

 brown, usually distributed quite uniformly over the entire surface. 



General distkibution — Of the Dusky Grouse and its several subspecies: 

 Eoeky Mountain and Pacific Coast regions from southern Alaska and Yukon Ter- 

 ritory south to the mountains of California and central Arizona. Of the Sierra 

 Grouse (subspecies sierrae) : upper belt of coniferous trees (upper Transition and 

 Canadian life zones) of mountains from Port Klamath, Oregon, south in the 

 Sierra Nevada of California, to Mount Pinos, Ventura County. 



Distribution in Califoenia — Common resident of the upper coniferous belt 

 (upper Transition and Canadian life zones) from Mount Shasta south along the 

 inner coast ranges at least as far as central Lake County, and along the Sierra 

 Nevada south through the Mount Whitney region to Piute Mountain, Kern 

 County; also on the Warner Mountains, Modoc County, on the White Mountains, 

 'Inyo County, and on Mount Pinos, Ventura County. 



