368 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
The Plumed Quail ( Oreortyx pictus ) inhabits the mountain ranges of the 
Pacific coast. It is about the size of the preceding species, but while the body 
plumage is not so bright as either, it is provided with two long, black and 
charming plume-feathers, which may be elevated when the bird is excited. 
The Blue Quail ( Calipepla squamata) is found in Mexico and Arizona, 
and is a specially handsome bird, the body feathers being of a bright sky-blue, 
the head mottled with rufous, white and black, and crested with a webbed 
feather that curves gracefully forward. The secondary feathers of the wings 
are brown, flecked with white. 
Next to the pheasant and quail in popular esteem as a game or table 
bird, is the grouse, or prairie chicken, of which there are several species both 
in this and other countries of a north temperate and arctic climate. 
The Pinnated Grouse ( Tetrao cupido ) is perhaps the most favorably known 
of the wild-chicken species, though not so numerous. They are rarely found 
now east of the Mississippi; nor do any considerable number now exist, so far 
as I have been able to learn, outside 
of Dakota, where, in 1884, I found them 
so plentiful along the Missouri river, 
some forty miles below Bismarck, that 
it was an easy matter to “ bag ” more 
than one hundred in a day’s. shooting. 
These birds are partial to stunted brush¬ 
wood, and are particularly fond of a 
small red and very sour berry, called bull- 
berry, that grows on a low tree, about the 
size of the hawthorn. When “ put up ” 
they nearly always light in a tree, often 
rising to the topmost branches, from 
which they are not easily frightened, 
but will crane their necks and utter 
their call of put-put-put-put, while the 
sportsman discharges his gun repeatedly 
and until they are struck. Like others 
of the species the pinnated grouse is a 
very chivalrous and vain bird during 
the mating season. They congregate of an evening in open places and 
sometimes a covey of several dozen may be seen going through the graceful 
figures of the minuet, bowing their heads together, turning in a kind of jerky 
manner, spreading their tails and chassezing in a proud and measured manner. 
At this time the bird is remarkable for the naked sacculated appendages which 
hang on either side of the neck, and which can be inflated until they are almost 
the size and color of an orange. The cocks are also noted for their fighting 
proclivities, and during the breeding season the most desperate combats take 
place lasting sometimes for hours, but rarely ever resulting in any great 
damage to the contestants. 
The pinnated grouse , like all the species, builds its nest upon the ground, 
being a simple excavation lined with grass, in which generally about fifteen 
eggs of a brownish-white are deposited. The plumage of the bird is a mottle 
of white and chestnut-brown, the latter color predominating. The male is pro- 
THE combat. 
