The Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse 



recognition of the danger which threatened the species, and a rigid policy 

 of protection for a term of years would have preserved for us, at least in 

 the northeastern counties of the State, a valuable economic asset, as well 

 as a most interesting native species. But the day of opportunity has 

 gone by. Both observance of law and economic wisdom are products of 

 orderly civilization, and this wild thing succumbed while every man did 

 that which was right (or wrong) in his own eyes. Diligent inquiry on 

 the part of the authors of "The Game Birds of California" failed to 

 discover any contemporary records, and in all probability this bird, 

 although still found further north, has vanished as a bird of California. 



The economy and general appearance of the Sharp-tailed Grouse is 

 much that of the Prairie Hen (Tympanuchus americanns) , or "chicken," 

 of the East, after which it was promptly named by the early settlers. 

 In the early days it was partially migratory in habit, spreading out upon 

 the sage-brush stretches and rye-grass plains in spring and summer, but 

 resorting to the aspen groves and timbered draws in winter. As soon, 

 however, as cultivation assured support in winter, the birds began to 

 maintain their place in the open wheat-fields, or visited the haystacks and 

 the farmyards. Though chiefly terrestrial in habit, at the advent of 

 cold weather these Grouse alight freely in trees and bushes, browsing 

 upon the tender shoots or gleaning unfallen fruit, being especially partial 

 to the rose-hips. In the famed "Yakima County," of Washington, which 

 is faunistically comparable with much in our Modoc-Lassen region, 

 the Sharp-tail was a commonplace thirty or forty years ago. It was no 

 unusual thing in my boyhood to see a flock of these Grouse walking and 

 fluttering about the barn or some of the out-buildings, nor even to be 

 aroused at early morning by the patter and scratch of pectinated feet upon 

 the house-top. Of course this was the prompt signal for resurrecting 

 the old musket, — so gracious is human hospitality! 



Sharp-tailed Grouse have several cackling and calling notes, none 

 more characteristic than the rattling, grunting cry with which they take 

 to wing. When getting under way the body is rocked violently, as though 

 by alternating wing-strokes. A series of such flaps is followed, if the way 

 is clear, by a long sail on stiffened wings; and so powerful is the bird in 

 flight that it will not infrequently distance a hawk or an unsophisticated 

 owl. I have seen a Marsh Hawk dash repeatedly into a passing flock of 

 Grouse, but never saw him catch one. 



These Grouse are doubtfully monogamous, but their nesting is pre- 

 pared for by an elaborate social function, which is thus described by Mr. 

 Ernest E. Thompson :" "After the disappearance of snow and the coming 

 of warmer weather, the chickens meet every morning at gray dawn in 



■Speaking of a closely allied form, P. p. campeslris — The Birds of Manitoba, Proc. U. S. Nat'l Museum. Vol. 

 XIII. (1890), p. 519. 



l60I 



