NEW SPECIES OF GROUSE. 
333 
on the banks of streams are the places usually selected 
for celebrating the weddings ; the time generally 
about sunrise. The wings of the male are lowered and 
buzzing on the ground; the tail spread like a fan, 
somewhat erect; the bare yellow oesophagus inflated 
to a prodigious size, fully half as large as his body, and 
from its soft membranous substance being well con- 
trasted with the scale-like feathers below it on the 
breast, and the flexile silky feathers on the neck, which 
on these occasions stand erect. In this grotesque form 
he displays, in the presence of his intended mate, a 
variety of pleasing attitudes. His love-song is a con- 
fused, grating, but not offensively disagreeable tone,— 
something that we can imitate, but have a difficulty in 
expressing, — Hurr-hurr-hurr-r-r-r-hoo, ending in a 
deep hollow tone, not unlike the sound produced by 
blowing into a large reed.’ 
“ The pheasant-tailed grouse builds on the ground, 
beneath the shade of Purshia and Artemisia , or near 
streams, among FJialaris arundinacea. The nest is 
carelessly constructed of dry grass and twigs. The 
eggs are of a wood-brown colour, irregularly blotched 
with chocolate brown at the larger end ; in size they 
equal those of a common fowl, and vary from thirteen 
to seventeen in number. The period of incubation is 
about three weeks; and the young leave their nest a 
few hours after they are hatched. 
“ In the summer and autumn months, according to 
Mr Douglas, these birds are seen in small troops, and 
in spring and winter in flocks of several hundreds. 
They are plentiful throughout the barren arid plains of 
the river Columbia, as well as in the interior of North 
California. They do not exist on the banks of the 
river Missouri ; nor have they been seen in any place 
east of the Rocky Mountains. The vernacular name 
by which they are known among the Kyuse Indians, 
who reside on the banks of the Columbia, is Pyamis . 
Their food consists chiefly of the buds, leaves, and 
fruit of Purshia tridentata , Artemisia , the seeds of 
Cactus , brown and black ants, and sand bugs. Their 
