May 31st.—Ride in amidst the tents of the Commission, anxiously awaiting my arrival. The following day men and mules arrive safely. So ended my journey through the wilder part of Oregon, having accomplished a hazardous, wearisome journey, making my way a distance of several hundred miles without any trails, or, if any, simply trails used by Indians to reach their hunting or fishing-grounds; sleeping during the whole time in the open air, a saddle my only pillow. Apart from the anxiety, harass, and want of rest, and the necessity of guarding against the hostile Klamaths, to save the mules and our scalps, we all enjoyed the journey thoroughly, not even a cold resulting from the exposure.
CHAPTER XII.
SHARP-TAILED GROUSE—BALD-HEADED EAGLE—MOSQUITOS—LAGOMYS MINIMUS (NOV. SP.)—HUMMINGBIRDS—UROTRICHUS.
The Sharp-tailed Grouse (Pediocætes Phasianellus, Baird; Tetrao Phasianellus, Linn.; Centrocercus Phasianellus, Jardine; Phasianus Columbianus, Ord.)—Specific characters: The tail consists of eighteen feathers—prevailing colours black, white, and umber-yellow; the back marked with transverse bars, the wings with round conspicuous white spots—under pure white; the breast and sides thickly marked with V-shaped blotches of dark-brown; length about 18·00; wing, 8·50; tail, 5·23 inches.
This beautiful bird is alike estimable, whether we consider him in reference to his field qualities (therein being all a grouse ought to be, rising with a loud rattling whirr, and going off straight as an arrow, lying well to dogs, and frequenting open grassy prairies), or viewed as a table dainty, when bowled over and grilled. Though his flesh is brown, yet for delicacy of flavour—game in every sense of the word—I’ll back him against any other bird in the Western wilds. This grouse appears to replace the Prairie-hen (Cupidonia cupido) on all the prairies west of the Rocky Mountains. By the fur-traders it is called the ‘spotted chicken’; for all grouse, by the traders and half-breeds, are called chickens! and designated specifically by either habit or colour—such as blue chickens, wood chickens, white chickens (ptarmigan), &c. &c.; the skis-kin of the Kootanie Indians.
THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE
(Pediocætes phasianellus).
The tail is cuneate and graduated, and about two-thirds the length of the wing; the central pair, considerably longer than the rest, terminate in a point—hence the name sharp-tailed.
The singular mixture of colours (white, black, and brownish-yellow), the dark blotches, transverse bars, and V-shaped marks of dark-brown, exactly resemble the ground on which the bird is destined to pass its life. The ochreish-yellow angular twigs and dead leaves of the Artemisia, or wild-sage; the sandy soil, dried and bleached to a dingy-white; the brown of the withered bunch-grass; the weather-beaten fragments of rock, clad in liveries of sombre-coloured lichens, admirably harmonise with the colours in which Nature has wisely robed this feathered tenant of the wilderness.