THE COLUMBIAN" SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 101 



coming more and more settled, it recedes before civilization. As it is not a 

 particularly shy bird, it falls an easy victim to the gunner. 



In Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, where it used to be exceedingly 

 abundant a decade ago, it is every year becoming rarer, and at the present 

 rate of decrease it will not be long before it will be numbered among the 

 game birds of the past, at least in all fertile portions of the country, retain- 

 ing only a precarious foothold in the more sterile sections of these States 

 where the lands are too poor and rocky to be successfully cultivated. 



From eleven to fourteen eggs are laid to each set, rarely more. These 

 are usually short ovate in shape, and very small for the size of the bird. The 

 ground color varies from creamy buff to pale olive brown. An occasional 

 specimen has a pale vinaceous bloom overlying the ground color. The 

 majority of the eggs are slightly spotted with reddish brown; the markings, 

 for the most part, are very fine, the spots varying from mere pin points to 

 the size of No. 6 shot. All these markings are superficial and easily rubbed 

 off on a freshly laid specimen. 



The average measurement of seventy-two specimens in the U. S. National 

 Museum collection is 43 by 32 millimetres. The largest egg in this series 

 measures 46.5 by 34.5, the smallest 39 by 31 millimetres. 



Of the types, No. 9139 (PI. 3, Fig. 6), from an incomplete set of four, 

 was collected May 29, 1862, near Fort Yukon, Alaska, by Mr. J. Lockhart, 

 of the Hudson Bay Company; No. 21103 (PI. 3, Fig. 7), selected from a set 

 of fifteen, was taken April 22, 1871, near Fort Lapwai, Idaho; and No. 21106 

 (PI. 3. Fig. 8), from a set of eleven eggs, taken June 18, 1876, near Camp 

 Harney, Oregon. The last two are from the Bendire collection. 



37. Pediocaetes phasianellus campestris Ridgway. 



PRAIRIE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 



Pedice.cetes phasianellus campestris Ridgway, Proceedings Biological Society, Wash- 

 ington, 11, April 10, 1884, 93. 

 (B — C — , R — C — , U 3086.) 



Geographical range : Plains and prairies of the United States ; north to Man- 

 itoba ; east to Wisconsin and northern Illinois ; west to eastern Colorado ; south to east- 

 ern New Mexico. 



This recently described subspecies differs from Pediocates phasianellus 

 columbianus in its rather lighter and much more ochraceous coloration above, 

 in having the black bars narrower and less regular, and in the V-shaped 

 markings of the lower parts being much less distinct. It is thus described 

 by Mr. R. Ridgway, and from types coming from Illinois and the Rosebud 

 River, Montana. 



The breeding range of the Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse extends from 

 northern Illinois, west through southern Wisconsin, northwestern Iowa, 

 middle and western Kansas, through eastern Colorado to northeastern New 



