THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 
159 
skirts of the Saskatcliewan plains, and is found 
throughout the woody liistricts of the fur countries, 
haunting open glades and low thickets on the borders 
of lakes*. 
Buonaparte thus details their manners. “ The 
Sharp-tailed Grouse is remarkably shy, living solitary, 
or by pairs during summer, and not associating in 
packs till autumn ; remaining thus throughout the 
winter. They, of choice, inhabit what are called 
the juniper plains, keeping among the small juni- 
per bushes, which constitute their food. They are 
usually seen on the ground, but when disturbed 
fly to the highest trees. Their food in summer is 
composecl of beiries, 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 aie 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 positioif, 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 sevei'al 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. 
