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Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse — Part 2
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All young grouse feed largely on insects, especially grass-hoppers, at first, but sharp-tails become almost dependent at any time on the hips of the wild rose, the stony seeds that likewise do the work of gravel being a staple every month in the year; willow and birch browse, various seeds, cereals, and berries enlarging a long menu. Such dainty fare makes delicate, luscious flesh, so tender, indeed, that young birds falling at the aim of the sportsman's gun have been burst asunder when they reached the ground, and their feathers loosened. With increased age the flesh grows dark and less palatable. These grouse, hunted in the same fashion that the pinnated grouse is, generally lie well to a dog. A single bird rising with a cackling cry when flushed at a point, flies swiftly straight away, now beating the wings, now sailing with them stiffly set and decurved, still cackling as it goes. Later in the year, when coveys unite to form a dense pack, the eyes, turned in all directions at once, on the perpetual lookout, it is a skilled sportsman who can steal a march on them before they run swiftly away and finally take to wing to flap and sail far, far beyond reach of his gun. When cold blasts, high winds, and deep snow drive these prairie lovers into timbered lands and sheltered ravines, a covey spends much time roosting in trees and walking along the branches, where the sharp-tails' nature apparently undergoes a change; for it is said they are almost stupidly unsuspicious now, and will sit still and look on at the destruction of their companions. Odd that they should shun man and his habitations! A partial migration of females to warmer, or at least more sheltered winter quarters, doubtless accounts for the variation of the species.
The Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse (Pediocoetes phasianellus campestris), also called by the various popular names by which the prairie sharp-tail is known since few see any difference between the two varieties, has its upper parts more grayish instead of yellowish buff, possibly with less conspicuous white spots on its wings and shoulders, and its whitish under parts, including flanks, marked with black U or V shaped lines. In habits there appears to be little or no difference between this variety and its prototypes; therefore the account of the prairie sharp-tail need not be repeated. As its name implies, the region about the Columbia River is this grouse's chosen habitat; but the northwestern part of the United States, including northeastern California, northern Nevada, and Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, and from west of the Rocky Mountains northward through British Columbia to central Alaska, is the area over which it is distributed. As man, whom it shuns (unlike the pinnated grouse), appears on its territory, it recedes before him into wilder, remote districts, until plains where coveys were abundant only five years ago now know them no more.
The Sharp-tailed Grouse (Pediocoetes phasianellus), a bird that never shows its dark, rich plumage within the United States, however commonly the paler, yellower prairie, and the grayer Columbian varieties of this handsome grouse are called by its name, ranges over the interior of British America to Fort Simpson, and is comparatively little known. Reversing the usual rule, the plumage of this one species grows gradually darker as the birds range northward, until the true sharp-tail has black for its prevailing color.