ZOOLOGY. 
223 
geographical distribution, as far east as Milk river, Nebraska Territory, must be by following the 
line of the Black Hills, and eastern base of the Rocky mountains, from the South Pass northward. 
In August, 1853, a sage cock was shot by a member of our party on the Milk river, two 
hundred miles west of Foi’t Union, Nebraska, and about the same distance east of the Rocky 
mountains. He was a fine bird, but so much injured in shooting that I did not attempt to 
preserve the skin, being in hopes of obtaining another. In this I was disappointed. The 
general hue of plumage was decidedly more red than that of those I have seen from the Oregon 
plains. 
I observed a small flock of these birds on the plains, bordering the Milk river. In gait and 
actions they resembled turkeys, but were considerably smaller. Mr. Gibbs, in a note to me, 
says: “ Nuttall is wrong on two points concerning the sage cock, in his appendix to the second 
edition of his volume on water birds. He says the ‘ tail is somewhat rounded, ’ whereas it is sharp. 
Also that it is not found east of the Rocky mountains. I have seen them near Fort Laramie on 
the Platte. In fact, wherever there is ‘sage’ ( artemesia ) you may look for sage fowls.”—S. 
PEDIOCANTES PHASIANELLUS, Baird. 
Sliorp-tnilecl Grouse. 
Tetrao phasianellus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. I, ed. 10, 1758, 160. (Notin 12th edition.;— Forster, Phil. Trans. 
LXII, 1772, 394, 495.— Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 747. —Latham, Ind. Orn. II, 635.— Ord. 
Guthrie’s Geog. 2d Amer. ed. II, 1815, 317.— Bon. Syn. 1828, 127 .—Ib. Amer. Orn. Ill, 
1828, 37 ; pi. xix.— Nuttall, Man. I, 1832, 669.— Acd. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 569; pi. 
382.— Ib. Syn. 1839, 205.— Ib. Birds Amer. V, 1842, 110; pi. 298.— Newberry, Zool. 
Cal. & Or. Route ; Rep. P. R. R. Surv. VI, iv, 1857, 94. 
Tetrao (Centrocernus) phasianellus, Swainson, F. Bor. Am. II, 1831,361. 
Centrocercus phasianellus, Jarijine, Game Birds, Nat. Lib. Birds, IV, 136 ; pi. xvi.— Bonap. Comptes Rendus, 
XLV, 1857, 428. 
? Phasianus columhianus, Ord . Guthrie’s Geog. 2d Am. ed. II, 1815, 317 ; based on the Columbia pheasant of Lewis & 
Clark, II, 180. 
Tetrao urogallus, Var. /?. Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 12th, 273. 
Pediocaetes phasianellus, Baird, Gen. Rep. Birds, p. 626, in which see extended synonymy. 
Sp. Ch.—T ail of eighteen feathers. Colors, white, black, and brownish yellow. Above with transverse bars ; the wings 
with round white spots. Beneath pure white, with dark V-shaped blotches on the breast and sides. Length, 18.00; wing, 
8.50; tail, 5.24. 
Hab. —Northern prairies and plains, from Wisconsin to Cascades of Oregon and Washington. 
The same day the exploring party of Captain McClellan left the forests of the Cascade moun¬ 
tains, and with them the region of the ruffed and blue grouse, we met with flocks of the sharp¬ 
tailed grouse and the cock of the plains, which our western men called “prairie hen” and 
“sage fowl.” The sharp-tail, confounded by emigrants with the pinnated grouse of the Mis¬ 
sissippi valley, is found in this Territory only in the low alluvial prairies of the streams 
emptying into the Columbia east of the Cascade mountains. There we found them in flocks of 
several hundreds, which would start irregularly from the long grass, and after flying a few rods 
again light in it. When heavy frosts and snow began, near the 49th degree, they would fly to 
the tops of the trees in the early morning to warm themselves, often ascending to the tops of 
pines a hundred feet high. They shun high grounds and forests entirely, and within a distance 
of half a mile I have seen both this and the blue grouse (which avoids open plains altogether) 
as I passed from prairie to forest. The only cry I have heard them utter was a cackle when 
suddenly started from the ground. Their wings make a loud whirring, as among others of the 
genus.—C. 
