Mr. Lord regards this Grouse as remarkable both for its field qualities—such as lying well to a dog, rising with a loud rattling whir, frequenting open grassy prairies, and flying as straight as an arrow—and for its excellence as a table dainty. For delicacy of flavor its flesh is unequalled. With the fur-traders this species is known as the Spotted Chicken, and is, furthermore, the Skis-kin of the Kootanie Indians. Its singular combination of colors—white, black, and brownish-yellow—makes it exactly resemble the ground on which it lives, and admirably harmonizes with the dead twigs and leaves of the artemisia, the dry and sandy soil, the brown of the withered bunch-grass, and the sombre-colored lichens of the rocks. It often requires a keen and practised eye to distinguish one of these birds from the ground on which it has fallen, even though the eye be kept on the spot where it was seen to fall. This similarity of colors with those of the prairie no doubt effectually conceals them from the hawks and owls.
Its favorite haunt is on open grassy plains in the morning, keeping concealed in the long thick grass, coming about midday to the stream to drink, and to dust itself in the sandy banks. It seldom goes into the timber, always remains close to the prairie, and never retires into the depth of the forests. It lays its eggs on the open prairie in a tuft of grass, or near the foot of a small hillock, nesting early in spring, and depositing from twelve to fourteen eggs. The nest is a mere hole scratched in the earth, with a few grass-stalks and root-fibres laid carelessly and loosely over the bottom. Mr. Lord describes the eggs as of a dark rusty-brown, with small splashes or speckles of darker brown thickly spattered over them.
After nesting-time they appear in broods about the middle of August, the young birds being about two thirds grown. At this time they frequent the margins of small streams where there is thin timber and underbrush. After the middle of September they begin to pack, two or three coveys getting together, and flock after flock joining until they accumulate into hundreds. On the first appearance of snow they begin to perch on the dead branches of a pine or on the tops of fences. Near Fort Colville, after snow fell, they assembled in vast numbers in the large wheat-stubbles. They became wary and shy, the snow rendering every moving thing so conspicuous that it was next to impossible for dogs to hunt them.
The food of this Grouse consists principally of berries in the summer months, such as the snowberry, the bearberry, the haws of the wild rose, and the whortleberry, grain, the larvæ of insects, grass-seeds, etc. In the winter they run over the snow with ease and celerity, dig holes in it, and burrow underneath in the manner of a Ptarmigan. During the two winters Mr. Lord spent at Colville, flocks of these birds congregated around the hayricks at their mule-camp. In a temperature often 30° and more below zero, and the snow several feet deep, they were strong, fat, and wild, and did not appear to suffer at all from the intense cold. Indeed, they are said to pair very early in the spring, long before the snow has gone off the ground, and their meeting is preceded by some very singular performances, which are called by the fur-traders chicken-dances, to several of which Mr. Lord was an eyewitness. Groups of these birds assemble for their dances either about sunrise or late in the afternoon, selecting for the purpose a high round-topped mound, which in the course of their evolutions becomes worn quite bare. At one of the dances witnessed by Mr. Lord there were about twenty birds present; the birds nearest him were head to head, like gamecocks in fighting attitude,—the neck-feathers ruffed up, the little sharp tail elevated straight on end, the wings dropped close to the ground, but keeping up a rapid vibration or continued drumming sound. They circled round and round each other in slow waltzing time, always maintaining the same attitude, but never striking at each other. Sometimes the pace increased, and one pursued the other until the latter faced about. Others jumped about two feet in the air until out of breath, and then strutted about in a peculiar manner; and others went marching about with tails and heads as high up as they could get them.
Captain Blakiston states that on the Saskatchewan this species was very generally distributed throughout the interior. He met with it just below the forks of the Saskatchewan, and traced it to the western base of the Rocky Mountains. He found it breeding at Fort Carlton. He regards these birds as of polygamous habits. In the fall they are found in families, in the semi-wooded country bordering on the prairies. They perch on trees, frequently at the very top, and their crops are found stuffed out with berries. These are chiefly the fruit of the bearberry, the ground juniper, the snowberry, the small prairie roses, the buffalo-berry, and several kinds of buds. They have also been known to feed on caterpillars and other insects baked and crisped by prairie fires. Captain Blakiston was also an eyewitness of one of the singular love-performances of these birds, known as dances. His account of it, which is very full, is almost exactly in correspondence with the account referred to as given by Mr. Lord.
Mr. Ridgway met with this Grouse at one locality only, encountering them late in September in the Upper Humboldt Valley. There it was found in considerable numbers in the rye-grass meadows on the foot-slopes of the Clover Mountains. They were startled from the ground, where they were hidden in the grass, and when surprised frequently took refuge in the willow-thickets along the streams near by. Their flesh was found to be most excellent.
The eggs of this species vary considerably in size, but average about 1.80 inches in length and 1.30 in breadth. They are oval in shape, slightly pointed at one end. Their ground varies from a light clay to a dark rusty-brown, generally plain, but frequently speckled minutely with fine dottings of a darker brown.
Genus CUPIDONIA, Reichenbach.
Cupidonia, Reichenbach, Av. Syst. Nat. 1850, p. xxix. (Type, Tetrao cupido, L.)
Gen. Char. Tail of eighteen feathers, short, half the lengthened wings; the feathers stiffened and more or less graduated. Bare inflatable air-sac of the neck concealed by a tuft of long, stiff lanceolate feathers; an inconspicuous crest on the vertex. Tarsi feathered only to near the base, the lower joint scutellate. Culmen between the nasal fossæ scarcely one third the total length.