In form, size, and proportion, the American Dipper is almost precisely similar to the European.
COCK OF THE PLAINS.
Tetrao urophasianus. Bonaparte.
PLATE CCCLXXI. Male and Female.
Although the Cock of the Plains has long been known to exist within the limits of the United States, the rugged and desolate nature of the regions inhabited by it has hitherto limited our knowledge of its habits to the cursory observations made by the few intrepid travellers, who, urged by their zeal in the cause of science, have ventured to explore the great ridge of mountains, that separate our western prairies from the rich valleys bordering on the Pacific Ocean. Two of these travellers, my friends Dr Townsend and Mr Nuttall, have favoured me with the following particulars respecting this very remarkable species, the history of which, not being myself personally acquainted with it, I shall endeavour to complete by adding some notes of Mr Douglas.
“Tetrao Urophasianus, Pi-imsh of the Wallah Wallah Indians, Mak-esh-too-yoo of the Nezpercee Indians, is first met with about fifty miles west of the Black Hills. We lose sight of it in pursuing the route by the Snake River until we reach Wallah Wallah, on the banks of the Columbia, near the mouth of Lewis River. This bird is only found on the plains which produce the worm-wood (Artemisia), on which plant it feeds, in consequence of which the flesh is so bitter that it is rejected as food. It is very unsuspicious, and easily approached, rarely flies unless hard pressed, runs before you at the distance of a few feet, clucking like the common Hen, often runs under the horses of travellers when disturbed, rises very clumsily, but when once started flies with rapidity to a great distance, and has the sailing motion of the Pinnated Grous. In the autumn they frequent the branches of the Columbia River, where they feed on a narrow-leaved plant. At this time they are considered good food by the natives, who take great quantities of them in nets. J. K. Townsend.”
“On the north branch of the Platte (Larimie’s Fork) we begin to meet with the Tetrao Urophasianus in considerable numbers, always on the ground in small flocks or pairs, by no means shy, but when too nearly approached arising with a strong whirring noise, and uttering at the same time a rather loud but very short alarmed guttural cackle. The notes of the female indeed at such times almost resemble those of a common Hen. The old male when killed by Dr Townsend turned out so different from the imperfect and unadult specimens figured, that we could scarcely recognise it for the same species. Its size seemed to promise a fine meal, but appearances are often deceitful, and after being nicely broiled, it truly deserved to be treated like the well-prepared plate of cucumbers, proving so very bitter, though delicately white, that our hungry hunters could scarcely swallow more than a morsel. In short, it feeds by choice on the bitterest shrubs of these sterile plains, and under-wood (several species of Artemisia) is literally its favourite food. Of its nest and breeding habits we ascertained nothing, but cannot for a moment hesitate to say that some mistake must exist in either asserting or supposing that a bird so constantly confined to the open desert plains, could retire to the shady forests and dark alluvial thickets of the Columbia to rear its young apart from their usual food and habits. We met with this very fine Grous near to the plains around Wallah Wallah, on the south side of the Columbia, but never saw it either in the forests of the Columbia or the Wahlamet, nor, so far as we know, has it ever been found on the coast of California, or in the interior of Mexico. T. Nuttall.”
Mr Douglas’s statement is as follows:—“The flight of these birds is slow, unsteady, and affords but little amusement to the sportsman. From the disproportionately small, convex, thin-quilled wing,—so thin that a vacant space half as broad as a quill appears between each,—the flight may be said to be a sort of fluttering, more than any thing else: the bird giving two or three claps of the wings in quick succession, at the same time hurriedly rising; then shooting or floating, swinging from side to side, gradually falling, and thus producing a clapping, whirring sound. When started, the voice is cuck, cuck, cuck, like the Common Pheasant. They pair in March and April. Small eminences 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, buzzing on the ground; the tail, spread like a fan, somewhat erect; the bare yellow œsophagus inflated to a prodigious size,—fully half as large as his body, and, from its soft, membranous substance, being well contrasted 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 attitudes. His love-song is a confused, 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. Nest on the ground, under the shade of Purshia and Artemisia, or near streams, among Phalaris arundinacea, carefully constructed of dry grass and slender twigs. Eggs, from thirteen to seventeen, about the size of those of a common fowl, of a wood-brown colour, with irregular chocolate blotches on the thick end. Period of incubation twenty-one to twenty-two days. The young leave the nest a few hours after they are hatched. In the summer and autumn months these birds are seen in small troops, and in winter and spring in flocks of several hundreds. Plentiful throughout the barren, arid plains of the river Columbia; also 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.”
Tetrao Urophasianus, Ch. Bonap. Amer. Ornith. vol. iii. pl. 21, fig. 1. Female.
Tetrao (Centrocercus) Urophasianus, Richards. and Swains. Fauna Bor.-Americana, vol. ii. p. 358.
Cock of the Plains, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 665.