114 THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



along the edge of the lake for a little way, some lighting on the 

 ground again and others lighting in a large pine tree where they 

 seemed to make no particular effort at hiding. In this section 

 they are very much easier hunting than the sooty grouse in the 

 western part of the state. 



The Sierra grouse (Dendragapus obscurus sierrae) differs 

 slightly from the two species mentioned above. It lives in the 

 Sierra Nevadas, ranging through California, and has been found 

 as far north as the Fort Klamath country. 



In early days in the Willamette valley, the sooty grouse or 

 "Hooter" was very abundant. It lives about the fields and on 

 the. side hills in the spring and summer, but during the winter 

 retires into the higher fir trees, where it lives almost entirely on 

 buds and is seldom seen on the ground. As the fir groves have 

 been cut and the country settled more, these birds have gradually 

 disappeared. Even though they become exceedingly wild and 

 wary, yet they do not seem to stand the advance of civilization. 



During the mating season, a sooty grouse will take his place 

 on a limb of a big fir tree and hoot for hours at a time, every 

 few minutes apart. This hooting of the male sounds quite like 

 the whirring of a slender stick rapidly through the air. When a 

 bird is flushed from the field and flies up into the firs, it is ex- 

 tremely expert in hiding. It is difficult to find a bird that sits 

 perfectly still among the fir foliage. It is a surprising thing that 

 one may see several of these birds fly up into a tree or a flock 

 fly into a small grove and yet even by searching very carefully, 

 the ordinary person cannot pick out a single bird. In some way 

 nature has made it possible for this bird to hide so effectively 

 in the firs that only the trained eye can detect it. The hooting 

 of the bird, too, is elusive and deceiving, for oftentimes as one 

 stands in the woods, it is impossible to tell whether the sound 

 comes from in front or behind. 



The sooty grouse is the largest of the wood grouse that are 

 found in the United States, but not so large, however, as the sage 

 grouse of eastern Oregon. It may be recognized by the bluish- 

 slate color on the back, finely mottled with gray and brown. 

 Above each eye of the male is a small streak of yellow skin not 



