The reddish tint on the head affords no indication of the age of the bird, some individuals of all ages having that part pure white, while others have it rusty. The same remark applies to our two Swans.
SHARP-TAILED GROUS.
Tetrao Phasianellus, Linn.
PLATE CCCLXXXII. Male and Female.
This is another species of our birds with the habits of which I am entirely unacquainted. Dr Richardson’s account of it is as follows:—“The northern limits of the range of the Sharp-tailed Grous is Great Slave Lake, in the sixty-first parallel; and its most southern recorded station is in latitude 41°, on the Missouri. It abounds on the outskirts of the Saskatchewan plains, and is found throughout the woody districts of the Fur Countries, haunting open glades or low thickets on the borders of lakes, particularly in the neighbourhood of the trading paths, where the forests have been partially cleared. In winter it perches generally on trees, in summer is much on the ground; in both seasons assembling in coveys of from ten to sixteen. Early in spring, a family of these birds select a level spot, whereon they meet every morning, and run round in a circle of fifteen or twenty feet in diameter, so that the grass is worn quite bare. When any one approaches the circle, the birds squat close to the ground, but in a short time stretch out their necks to survey the intruder; and, if they are not scared by a nearer advance, soon resume their circular course, some running to the right, others to the left, meeting and crossing each other. These “Partridge dances” last for a month or more, or until the hens begin to hatch. When the Sharp-tailed Grous are put up, they rise with the usual whirring noise, and alight again at the distance of a few hundred yards, either on the ground, or on the upper branches of a tree. Before the cock quits his perch, he utters repeatedly the cry of cuck, cuck, cuck. In winter they roost in the snow like the Willow Grous, and they can make their way through the loose wreaths with ease. They feed on the buds and sprouts of the Betula glandulosa, of various willows, and of the aspen and larch; and in autumn on berries. Mr Hutchins says that the hen lays thirteen white eggs with coloured spots early in June; the nest being placed on the ground and formed of grass, lined with feathers.”
Dr Townsend informs me that while crossing the north branch of the Platte (Lorimie’s Fork), he found this species breeding, and that as an article of food it proved to be a very well-flavoured and plump bird, considerably superior to any of the other larger species that occur in the United States.
Tetrao Phasianellus, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 273.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 635.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 127.
Tetrao Phasianellus, Sharp-tailed Grous, Ch. Bonaparte, Amer. Ornith. vol. iii. p. 37, pl. 19.
Tetrao (centrocercus) Phasianellus, Swains. Sharp-tailed Grous, Richards. and Swains. Fauna Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p. 361.
Sharp-tailed Grous, Nuttall, Manual, vol. i. p. 669.
Adult Male. Plate CCCLXXXII. Fig. 1.