----
UNDER various names, as Blue Grouse, Grey Grouse, Mountain Grouse, Pine
Grouse, and Fool-hen, this species, which is one of the finest birds of its
family, is geographically distributed chiefly throughout the wooded and
especially the evergreen regions of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific and
northward into British America. In the mountains of Colorado Grouse is
found on the border of timber line, according to Davie, throughout the
year, going above in the fall for its principal food--grasshoppers. In
summer its flesh is said to be excellent, but when frost has cut short its
diet of insects and berries it feeds on spruce needles and its flesh
acquires a strong flavor. Its food and habits are similar to those of the
Ruffed Grouse. Its food consists of insects and the berries and seeds of
the pine cone, the leaves of the pines, and the buds of trees. It has also
the same habits of budding in the trees during deep snows. In the Blue
Grouse, however, this habit of remaining and feeding in the trees is more
decided and constant, and in winter they will fly from tree to tree, and
often are plenty in the pines, when not a track can be found in the snow.
It takes keen and practiced eyes to find them in the thick branches of the
pines. They do not squat and lie closely on a limb like a quail, but stand
up, perfectly still, and would readily be taken for a knot or a broken
limb. If they move at all it is to take flight, and with a sudden whir they
are away, and must be looked for in in another tree top.
Hallock says that in common with the Ruffed Grouse (see BIRDS, Vol. I, p.
220), the packs have a habit of scattering in winter, two or three, or even
a single bird, being often found with no others in the vicinity, their
habit of feeding in the trees tending to separate them.
The size of the Dusky Grouse is nearly twice that of the Ruffed Grouse, a
full-grown bird weighing from three to four pounds. The feathers are very
thick, and it seems fitly dressed to endure the vigor of its habitat, which
is in the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada country only, and in the pine
forests from five to ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. The
latter height is generally about the snow line in these regions. Although
the weather in the mountains is often mild and pleasant in winter, and
especially healthy and agreeable from the dryness and purity of the
atmosphere, yet the cold is sometimes intense.
Some years ago Mr. Hallock advised that the acclimation of this beautiful
bird be tested in the pine forests of the east. Though too wild and shy, he
said, to be domesticated, there is no reason why it might not live and
thrive in any pine lands where the Ruffed Grouse is found. Since the
mountain passes are becoming threaded with railroads, and miners, herders,
and other settlers are scattering through the country, it will be far
easier than it has been to secure and transport live birds or their eggs,
and it is to be hoped the experiment will be tried.
This Grouse nests on the ground, often under shelter, of a hollow log or
projecting rock, with merely a few pine needles scratched together. From
eight to fifteen eggs are laid, of buff or cream color, marked all over
with round spots of umber-brown.
[Illustration: DUSKY GROUSE.]