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Show 266 TETRAONUXE.- GRO USE. 143. Canace obscurus, ( Say.)- Dusky Grouse. . This Grouse is an inhabitant of high latitudes, but finds in the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains a climate and vegetation analogous to the far northern districts. In California, it is found in both the Coast and Sierra ranges as far south as latitude 35°, and probably even lower. It was present, though not very common, in the mountains near Fort Tejon, and was rather numerous in the region about Mount Whitney. Its presence depends much upon the conifers. It cares less for the pines, but the thick tangled forests of spruce, fir, and tamerack will rarely to entered without grouse sign being very soon apparent. In the Sierras, tbey are very fond of staying about the vicinity of the little grassy cienagas that are found scattered here and there on the flanks of the mountains, sometimes entirely environed with the coniferous trees. Lieutenant Carpenter, who has enjoyed most excellent opportunities for observing this bird both in Oregon and the Rocky Mountains, thus speaks of their habits: " Late in the fall, the Dusky Grouse disappear entirely from the grounds frequented by them in summer. At this latter season, their range is much wider. They leave, to a great extent, the thick woods, and are found much in the open glades, where many kinds of berries, as the wild strawberry, afford them a varied and luscious fare. About November, however, they wholly disappear, and a person looking for game in the places where in summer there were an abundance of these birds, would now see no sign of their presence. The idea credited by some, that they have migrated to warmer N climes, or that they are passing the long winter hidden away in a torpid state, is alike erroneous. In the Rocky Mountains, about the time of the first heavy snows, they betake themselves to the densest pine- woods, where they live entirely in the conifers. The buds of the pine and spruce now furnish them their only food, and upon these they subsist till the next spring, when the genial sun, with returning warmth, having released the streams and removed the snow, they again descend to mother- earth. In Oregon, too, even along the coast where no snow falls, this same habit obtains. They leave the ground entirely, resort to the pines, and their, terrestrial mode of life does not begin till the next summer, when berries and small seeds afford a greater attraction than their usual piuy fare. About the 1st of April, the males begin their booming notes, which may now be heard coming from all parts of the forest as the emulous birds begin their courtships. It is at this time that many are shot, the gunners now having a sure guide to their prey in the love- notes, which seem to proceed from the mid- air, as the birds give utterance to them when perched on the branch of some tall pine." These notes, which are so characteristic of the species in Washington Territory and Oregon, do not appear to have been noticed by any observer in the Rocky Mountains, and Lieutenant Carpenter tells me that not only has he himself not heard this, but all his inquiries among hunters and trappers have failed to establish this habit as belonging to the bird in the various parts of the Rocky Mountains he has visited. PERDiciDiE.- QUAILS. . 144. Laphortyx Californicus, ( Shaw>- California Valley Quail. Tetrao californicus, Shaw, Nat. Miss., pi. 345. CaUipepla cal\ fomicof Newb, P. R. R. Rep., vi. 1857, 92.- Heerm., ibid., x. 1859, pt. vi. 60. Lophnrtyx cali/ ornica, Bd., B. N. A., 1858,644.- Xantus, Proo. Phila. Acad. Nat, Sci., 1859,192.- Bd., Xantus, ibid., 305 ( Cape St. Lncas).- Coop. & Snckl., P. R. R. Rep., vol. xii, pt 11, lfcSO, 225.- Coop., B. Cal., i, 1870,549.- Cones, Key N. A. B., 1872, 238,- Nelson, Proc Boat. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. xvii, 3G5 ( California). The Valley Quail, as its name implies, is an inhabitant of the lower districts in California, where it is found overspread over all the country to the west of the Sierra Nevada range. On the north it reaches to the Columbia River. The most extreme limit at which I found it was in the mountains near Fort Tejon, where I saw the species on several occasions at an altitude of 6,000 feet. At this height, I found the young. Here they meet the Mountain Quail, or rather the ranges of the two were found at this point to overlap each other; for the Mountain Quail was found somewhat lower than this. Such, however, is rarely the case, as the Valley Quail is a much less hardy bird than its mountain- loving relative, aud courts the warmth of the pleasant valleys. As the number of its natural enemies, in the shape of wild animals and snakes, has been very much diminished through the agency of man, and its increase goes on almost without check, its numbers in some sections of the State arc simply enormous. On the island of Santa Cruz, the attempt has been made to introduce them, but with only measurable success, and it is not likely that they will ever there become very numerous; for the number of foxes on this island would be sufficient to keep them in check, were every other condition favorable. The average time for laying in Southern California seems to be along in April or |