THE SHARP -TAILED GROUSE. 
137 
skirls of the Saskatchewan plains, and is found 
throughout the woody districts of the fur countries, 
haunting open glades and tow thickets on the borders 
of lakes *. 
Buonaparte thus details their manners, <( The 
Sharp- tailed Grouse is remarkably shy, living solitary, 
or by paira during summer, and not associating in 
packs till autumn ; remaining thus throughout the 
winter. They, of choice, inhabit what arc called 
the juniper plains, keeping among the small juni- 
per bushes, which constitute their food. They are 
usually seen on the ground, hut when disturbed 
fly to the highest trees. Their food in summer is 
composed of berries, the various sorts of which they 
eagerly seek ; in winter they are confined to the 
buds and tops of evergreens, or of birch and elder, 
but especially poplar, of which they are very fond. 
They are more easily approached in autumn than 
when they inhabit large forests, as they then keep 
alighting on the tops of the tallest poplars, beyond 
the reach of an ordinary gun. When disturbed in 
that position, they are apt to hide themselves in the 
snow ; but Hearne informs us, that the hunter’s 
chance is not the better for that, for so rapidly do 
they make their way beneath the surface, that they 
often suddenly take wing several yards from the spot 
where they entered, and almost always in a different 
direction from that which is expected, 
** Like the rest of its kind, the sharp-tailed grouse 
* Northern Zoology, 
VOL, IV. 
Q 
