DUSKY GROUftR. 48 
its time in j)ine forests feeding on needles, buds, jiiid flowers. The 
yellow pine (Pi/u/s ponf/crosd) — injile flowers, llie wiiite fir (A/)/r.s 
< oncolor)^ Ahh's nuigiiip'cd^ (he Douglas lii* {Ps('ii<h>fsii(/<i nincrotuifd) , 
the western hendock {Tyu(ja heterophylUi)^ and (he hhick hemlock 
{Tsuga nicrtens'tand) are among (he (rees (hat aflord it subsisfence. 
That the blue grouse (hus utilizes (he foliage of conifers is well known 
(o everybody familiar with the bird. Major Bendire writes tliat (hir- 
ing the winter its food consists ahnost wholly of (lie buds and tender 
tops of pine and fir branches, refuse bits of which sometimes accu- 
nudate under a single tree to the amount of a bushel." A blue grouse 
^hot by W. W. Price at Slij)})ery Ford, Cal., when IT) feet of snow lay 
on a level, had filled its croj) with the young leaves of the white fir.'' 
Plants other than conifers furnish 14.17 percent of the annual food 
of the species. This material includes red clover leaves, willow 
leaves, blueberry leaves, miterwort {M itella breweri), birch shoots, 
and j)oplar flower buds. During July, in Montana and Utah, field 
agents of the Biological Survey have seen the bird feeding on the 
leaves, buds, and flowers of the Mariposa lily {CalochoHu.s). It 
eats also the blossoms of lupine, columbine, and the Indian paint 
brush (Castilleja). 
The blue grouse is only slightly granivorous. Its seed food 
amounts to but 4.99 percent of the whole — a proportion small indeed 
when compared with that of the bobwhite and the crested quails. 
The species is said by Alexander Wilson to resort to seeds only when 
other food is scarce.^ At times it visits fields for oats and other grain. 
It feeds also on pine seeds {Finns fexilis and other species). It picks 
up polygonum seeds {F. polymorphum and others), is fond of wild 
sunflower seeds, and has been known to sample false sunflower ( Wye- 
thia mollis)^ caraway {Glycosma occidentalis) ^ and the capsules of 
Fentstemon gracilis. It picks up also the seeds of various species of 
lupine, and is fond of acorns, including those of the canyon live oak 
(Quercus chrysolepis) . 
The blue grouse is one of the most highly frugivorous of our gal- 
linaceous birds. Fruit formed 20.09 percent of the food of the 45 
birds whose stomachs were examined in the laboratory. Manzanita 
berries constituted a large part, amounting to 13.48 percent of the 
total. During the sunnner and early fall they ^vere eaten in great 
quantities. The manzanita often forms tangled areas of chaparral 
and includes a number of species which furnish birds and mannnals 
an abundant supply of berries. The berries eaten by the blue grouse 
o Auk, vol. G, p. 33, 1889. 
b Condor, vol. 3, p. lOO, 1001. 
cAin. Ornith., vol. 4, p. IDl, 1S:51. 
