THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 115 



covered with feathers and something like a small comb. The tail 

 is blackish with a wide bluish-gray band. One of the distinguish- 

 ing marks between the sooty and Kichardson grouse is that the 

 former has the gray band on the end of the tail, while the latter 

 is without this distinct terminal band. The feet of all the grouse 

 are covered with hair-like feathers. 



The blue grouse nests on the ground, oftentimes at the foot 

 of a tree. The eggs are cream colored with fine red-brown spots, 

 very much like a turkey's egg, only smaller. The number of eggs 

 in a nest ranges from six to ten as a rule. 



A very good description of the booming or hooting of the 

 sooty grouse was published in Forest and Stream, May 23, 1889, 

 by a correspondent from Vancouver Island, British Columbia. 

 This writer was driving through the woods when he saw a pair 

 of blue grouse near the trail. He saw the cock bird give a very 

 entertaining exhibition of the charms he displays in wooing his 

 mate. 



"Like a turkey cock, he strutted about with his wings trail- 

 ing on the ground, his tail feathers erect and spread out fanlike 

 to their fullest extent, his neck distended, and on each side of his 

 neck the feathers were turned out so as to resemble a pair of 

 round, white rosettes nearly three inches in diameter, with an ob- 

 long red spot in their center where the skin of the neck was ex- 

 posed. His head seemed to be crowned with a fiery red comb. 

 Excepting the rosettes, he was in appearance a miniature turkey 

 gobbler. Every few seconds, he would strut up to his demure but 

 sweet looking mate, puff out his neck and with a jerky movement 

 of his head, utter his boom or hoot, boom — boom — boom." 



W. L. F. 



BIRDS AND FORESTS. 



As a general rule, people do not realize how much birds do to 

 protect the forests. According to a writer in "American For- 

 estry," more than half the food of chickadees and almost all the 

 food of woodpeckers consist of moths, caterpillars, boring beetles 

 and other insects injurious to trees. 



