132 
GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 
KEY TO SPECIES OF PEDKECETES. 
1. Ground color buffy grayish. columbianus, p. 132. 
1'. Ground color rusty or yellowish brown .... campestris, p. 132. 
308a. Pedicecetes phasianellus columbianus ( Ord ). Co¬ 
lumbian Sharp-tailed Grouse. 
Adults. — Upper parts grayish brown, with black and buffy markings; 
under parts buffy or clear whitish, white or buffy prevailing in feathers 
with Y-shaped markings. Young: similar to adult female but grayer, and 
throat white. Length: 15-19, wing 8.50-9.00, tail 4.00-5.50. 
Distribution. — Breeds in northern part of Great Basin region, east to 
Montana and Wyoming, and north from Utah, Nevada, and northeastern 
California to central portion of Alaska. 
Nest. — A hollow in the ground, lined with dried grass and feathers. 
Eggs: 11 to 14, creamy buff to olive brown, usually lightly spotted with 
reddish brown. 
Nowhere so abundant as the pinnated grouse, the sharp-tailed has 
a wider range over more unsettled country and will probably last 
longer, especially in the northern part of its range. While a prairie 
or plains bird, it is usually flushed from a berry patch, low bushes 
beside a creek, a stubble field, or sagebrush. Its finely mottled 
plumage makes it very inconspicuous, and its tendency is to lie low 
and be flushed at fatally close quarters. 
Though the grouse usually keep well hidden in summer, in winter 
when their plumage has become dense and their feet and legs rabbit¬ 
like, they may be seen crossing the fields on top of the snow or get¬ 
ting their breakfast of buds from the tops of trees and tall bushes. 
When the weather is cold and the snow deep and soft they often 
roost under the snow like the ruffed grouse, and come out in the 
morning fifteen or twenty feet from where they entered the white 
surface at night. 
In spring the males have a loud cackling note, besides a scraping 
sound produced apparently by opening and closing their rigid tail 
feathers. 
Vernon Bailey. 
308b. P. p. campestris Bidgw. Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse. 
Similar to columbianus , but ground color much lighter, prevailing shade 
rusty or yellowish brown ; under parts main¬ 
ly whitish, and dark breast washed with 
whitish. 
Distribution. — Breeds on plains and prairies 
in Transition and Upper Sonoran zones from 
Manitoba south to New Mexico, and from 
Wisconsin and Illinois west to the Rocky 
Mountains. 
Nest. — On the ground. Eggs: 11 to 14, 
creamy buff to pale olive brown, slightly 
spotted. 
Photographed by E. S. Cameron. 
Courtesy of The Auk. 
Fig. 205. 
