THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 
In open woodlands far remote 
The Sharp-tails utter their cackling note, 
And on the wild prairie ground 
Their simple nest and eggs are found. 
Long years agone, in countless pairs 
They courted, danced, and " put on airs," 
Bu* hunters, greedy, cruel — strange ! 
Have driven them beyond their range. 
C. C. M. 
ft WELL-KNOWN observer, who 
has spent many years in the 
West, says that the Sharp- 
tailed Grouse, being a bird of 
the wild prairies and open woodlands, 
has gradually retreated westward as 
the settlements have advanced, and will 
soon be a rare bird, to be looked for 
only in the sand-hills and unsettled por- 
tions of the country. 
During the summer months this bird 
inhabits the open prairies, retiring in 
winter to the ravines and wooded lands, 
and when the snow is deep and the 
weather severe often hides and roosts 
beneath the snow. This sometimes 
proves the destruction of the birds, the 
entrance to the roosting-place being 
filled by falling snow and frozen over. 
The Sharp-tails feed chiefly on Grass- 
hoppers, seeds, buds, blossoms, and 
berries. 
"When walking about on the ground 
they stand high on their legs, with their 
sharp-pointed tails slightly elevated, 
and when flushed, rise with a whirring 
sound of the wings, uttering as they go a 
guttural kuk-kuk-kuk, and swiftly wing 
themselves away in a direct course. 
The birds have several cackling notes, 
and the males a peculiar crowing or 
low call, that in tone sounds somewhat 
like the call of the Turkey. In the 
early spring, as the love season ap- 
proaches, they select a mound or slight 
elevation on the open prairies for a 
courtship ground, where they assemble 
at early dawn, the males dancing and 
running about in a circle before the 
females in a most ludicrous manner, 
facing each other with lowering head, 
raised feathers and defiant looks, cross- 
ing and recrossing each other's paths in 
a strutting, pompous way, seldom fight- 
ing, each acting as if confident of mak- 
ing the greatest display, and thus win- 
ning the admiration of and capturing 
the hen of his choice. These meetings 
and dances are kept up until the hens 
cease laying and begin to sit." 
These Grouse place the nest in a 
tuft of grass or under a low, stunted 
bush. A hollow in the ground is 
worked out to fit the body and lined 
with a few blades of grass arranged in 
a circular form. The hens attend 
wholly to the hatching and rearing of 
the young and are attentive and watch- 
ful mothers. 
The flesh of the Sharp-tail is lighter 
in color and more highly esteemed than 
that of the Prairie Hen, and the bird 
is therefore hunted more industriously. 
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