Volume 6, Plate XVI / Ornithology (Birds)

Sharp-Tailed Grouse

Centrocercus phasianellus

Centrocercus phasianellus, remarkable for its elongated tail, ranges from Great Slave Lake to the Missouri and abounds on the Saskatchewan plains, haunting juniper bushes whose buds, with berries and poplar tops, form its food. Shy and solitary, it flies to the highest trees or hides beneath the snow when disturbed, breeding on the ground with nine to thirteen white eggs spotted blackish, its plumage about sixteen inches mixing white and chestnut on a glossy blackish ground, the sexes nearly alike.