of bluebc'iTV {Vdcchihnu) and horsetail {Equisetuni). The Ahiska 
sj)ru('(' o:rouse, according to Dr. W, II. Dall, was found at Xnhito in 
winter feedin<»: exclusively on the buds of willow." 
The flesh of the spruce <rr()Use is dark and for the table is in no way 
comparable to that of the blue <rrouse. Nor is the bird equal to the : 
latter as an object of sport. It is. however, a thing of beauty in the ' 
dark northern coniferous forests, where its aesthetic value must impress 
every lover of nature. This grouse is strictly a forest bird, and no- . 
where appears to come into contact with agriculture. ; 
THE FRANKLIN GROUSE. • 
{Canavhitv.s frdiiklini.) 
The Franklin grouse is very similar to its near relative, the spruce 
grouse, and differs mainly in the conspicuous white marking on its 
upper tail coverts and in lacking the rufous tip to the tail. It is 
found in the mountains of western Montana and Idaho, westward to 
the coast ranges of Oregon and Washington and northward through 
British Columbia to southern Alaska. Major Bendire records 
that nidification occurs during the last of May and in June. The 
food habits of the bird are similar to those of the spruce grouse. In 
Alberta, between August 25 and September 1, 1894, J. A. Loring, a 
field agent of the Biological Survey, examined the crops of several 
Franklin grouse and found in them berries and leaves. A. H. How- 
ell, also of the Survey, examined crops and gizzards in Idaho during 
the last of September, 1895, and found in them large quantities of the 
leaves of the lodge-pole pine (Phufs m}(rr((i/<ina) broken into bits 
from one-fourth to three-fourths of an inch long. Major Bendire 
notes that in summer they furnish Indians and packers witli 
their principal supply of fresh meat. Their flesh is palatable then 
because they eat grasshoppers and berries and feed less freel}^ on the 
buds and leaves of spruce and tamarack.'' 
Hon. Theodore Roosevelt writes of this bird in Montana :'' 
Tlie nioiiiilMin nion call this bird the fool-hoii : and most certainly it dcsorvos 
the name, 'i'lic mcmhers of this particular flock, consistinj? of a hen and her 
three-parts j^rown chicks, acted with a stupidity unwonted even for their kind. 
They were feedinj; on the ground amonj; some youni; spruce, and on our 
sil)pr()ach flew up and perched in the hranclu's, four or Ave feet ahove our heads. 
There they stayed, utterinj; a low comi)lainin.i; whistle, and showed not the 
slij^htest suspicion when we came underneath them with lon.u sticks and knocked 
them off their i)erches. 
a Nelson, Nat. Hist Coll. Alaska, p. 180, 1887 (1888). 
&Life Hist. N. A. Thirds, [M, j). r.8, 1802. 
cThe Wilderness Hunter, p. 110, 1893. 
