120 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVII 
ally large patches of kinnikinnick, the berries of which are a favorite food 
of the Ruffed Grouse. 
The slopes of the higher ranges including the Coeur d’Alene Mountains, 
which have escaped the ravages of extensive forest fires in the past six years, 
are covered with dense stands of white pine and Douglas fir, the open ridges 
and burned over areas being grown up with shrubs similar to lower hills. The 
kinnikinnick is replaced by large patches of blueberry, a haunt of the Richard- 
son Grouse. The numerous mountain streams are lined with a growth of wil- 
lows, alder, and Spirea menziesii, which latter becomes very dense in shady 
places near sources and outlets. Where streams flow into lakes there are often 
flats several acres in extent which are subject to overflow in the spring. 
Fig. 46. Townsite of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; head of Spokane River and Fort Sherman 
Military Reservation in foreground 
Many of the flats are covered with a growth of tides, water grasses, willows, 
and Spirea menziesii, and are bordered with a few cottonwood and aspen and 
inhabited by a number of species of birds that prefer deciduous timber and 
marshy ground. 
The scarcity of ducks and the absence of many species of shore birds in 
this vicinity may be due to several causes: A general decrease in numbers of 
waterfowl as residents and migrants, and by a lack of feeding and breeding 
grounds. In former years the St. Joe marshes, and a large marsh about one 
and a half miles west of the city, locally known as meadows, were frequented 
by a large number of waterfowl, many of them breeding in seclusion. Present 
conditions are greatly changed by continuation of high water throughout the 
