362 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



ground, but in a short time stretch out their necks to survey the intruder ; and, 

 if they are not scared by a nearer advance, soon resume their circular course, 

 some running - to the right, others to the left, meeting and crossing each other. 

 These " Partridge-dances " last for a month or more, or until the hens begin 

 to hatch. When the Sharp-tailed Grouse are put up, they rise with the usual 

 whirring noise, and alight again, at the distance of a few hundred yards, either 

 on the ground, or on the upper branches of a tree. Before the cock quits his 

 perch, he utters repeatedly the cry of " Click, cue/c, click." In winter they roost 

 in the snow like the Willow Grouse, and they can make their way through the 

 loose wreaths with ease. They feed on the buds and sprouts of the Betula glandu- 

 losa, of various Willows, and of the aspen and larch ; and in autumn on berries. 

 Mr. Hutchins says that the hen lays thirteen white eggs, with coloured spots, 

 early in June ; the nest being placed on the ground, and formed of grass, lined 

 with feathers. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a male, killed at Great Slave Lake, November, 182G. 



Colour. — Crest, forehead, a line from the rictus under the eye, ear feathers, and cheeks, 

 blackish-brown, with pale edgings. Hind head and back of the neck shortly barred with 

 brownish-white, yellowish-brown, and blackish-brown. Dorsal plumage, scapulars, tertiaries, 

 and most of the wing coverts, yellowish-brown, approaching to ferruginous, broadly but irre- 

 gularly barred, and sparingly dotted with blackish-brown ; these dark bars having a peculiar 

 divergent, tricuspid form on the back and rump. Scapulars, tertiaries, and wing coverts 

 tipped with triangular white spots. The quills and the broad upper and anterior borders of 

 the wing clove-brown ; the secondaries tipped with white, and crossed by three bars of the 

 same ; the greater quills having about eight white bars on their outer webs only. Tail white, 

 the shafts blackish-brown ; the middle pair of feathers much striped and barred with blackish- 

 brown, and a few blotches of the same on the two adjoining pairs. Under surface: — lores, 

 superciliary stripe, both eyelids, chin, and part of the throat, brownish-white. Front of the 

 neck white and ferruginous, barred with blackish-brown. Base of the neck beneath, the 

 breast, and shoulders, beautifully marked with white arrow-headed spots, bounded by dark 

 brown : the plumage fringed with white. Flanks coloured like the back, but with more white. 

 Rest of the under plumage, inner wing coverts, and axillaries, pure white ; the fore part of 

 the belly marked with concealed dark brown lanceolate stripes. Tarsal feathers pale soiled 

 brown. Bill umber-brown ; pale horn-colour beneath. Fringed superciliary comb bright 

 red. Toes bluish-grey. Nails dark. — Females killed on the Saskatchewan differ in the 

 ground colour of the middle tail feathers being brownish-orange, and the forehead and crest 

 barred with the same ; the ferruginous tint of the plumage brighter and more general, and 

 the arrow-headed marks on the breast less acute, and not so handsome or well defined. 

 The crests are smaller and the superciliary combs scarcely visible. 



