Mr. Nuttall met with this Grouse in considerable numbers on the north branch of the Platte. They were always on the ground in small flocks or pairs, by no means shy; but when too nearly approached, uttering a rather loud but short guttural cackle, and rising with a strong whirring sound. Their notes, at times, strongly resembled those of the common Hen. He never met with them in any forest, nor have they been taken near the coast of California.
2561 ♂ ⅓ ⅓
Centrocercus urophasianus.
This species was first obtained by Lewis and Clark’s party in their expedition to the Rocky Mountains. It was afterwards met with by Douglas, who published in the Linnæan Transactions (XVI, p. 133) an account of its habits. He described its flight as slow, unsteady, and as affording but little amusement to the sportsman; being a succession of flutterings, rather than anything else. They rise hurriedly, giving two or three flaps of the wing, swinging from side to side in their movement, and gradually falling, making a whirring sound, at the same time uttering a cry of cuck-cuck-cuck, like the common Pheasant. They pair in March and April.
At the mating-season the male is said to select some small eminence on the banks of streams for the very singular performances it goes through with at that period in the presence of its mate. The wings are lowered and dragged on the ground, making a buzzing sound; the tail, somewhat erect, is spread like a fan; the bare and yellow œsophagus is inflated to a prodigious size, and said to become nearly half as large as its body, while the silky flexile feathers on the neck are erected. Assuming this grotesque form, the bird proceeds to display a singular variety of attitudes, at the same time chanting a love-song in a confused and grating, but not an offensively disagreeable tone, represented as resembling hurr-hurr-hurr-r-r-r-hoo, ending in a deep and hollow utterance.
Centrocercus urophasianus.
Their nests were found, by Douglas, on the ground, under the shade of Artemisia, or when near streams, among Phalaris arundinacea, and were carefully constructed of dry grass and slender twigs. The eggs are said to be as many as from thirteen to seventeen in number, and the period of incubation to be twenty-one or twenty-two days. The young leave the nest soon after they are hatched.
In the winter these birds are said to be found in large flocks of several hundreds, in the spring in pairs, and later in the summer and fall in small family groups. They were abundant throughout the barren amid plains of the Columbia and in Northern California, but were not met with east of the Rocky Mountains.