Audubon's Birds/BIRDSVER1_3.BIN/dp/0052/00522.txt

Text File | 1992-08-27 | 12KB | 195 lines

$Unique_ID{BRD00522}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Pheasant-tailed Grouse.--Cock of the Plains}
$Subject{Tetraoninae; Tetrao; Centrocerus; urophasianus; Pheasant-tailed Grouse;
Cock of the Plains; Sage Grouse}
$Journal{Birds of America:  Volume V}
$Volume{Vol. 5:106-110}
$Family{Tetraoninae}
$Genus{Tetrao; Centrocerus}
$Species{urophasianus}
$Common_Name{Pheasant-tailed Grouse; Cock of the Plains; Sage Grouse}
$Log{
Plate CCXCVII*00522p1.scf
Family*00516.txt
Genus*00517.txt
}

       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       B I R D S   O F   A M E R I C A .

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

                   ------------------------------------------
                                    VOL.  V.
                        --------------------------------


                  PHEASANT-TAILED GROUSE.--COCK OF THE PLAINS.
                                 [Sage Grouse.]


                          TETRAO UROPHASIANUS, Bonap.
                          [Centrocerus urophasianus.]


                        PLATE CCXCVII.--MALE AND FEMALE.


     Although the Cock of the Plains has long been known to exist within the
limits of the United States, the rugged and desolate nature of the regions
inhabited by it has hitherto limited our knowledge of its habits to the cursory
observations made by the few intrepid travellers who, urged by their zeal in the
cause of science, have ventured to explore the great ridge of mountains that
separate our western prairies from the rich valleys bordering on the Pacific
Ocean.  Two of these travellers, my friends Mr. TOWNSEND and Mr. NUTTALL, have
favoured me with the following particulars respecting this very remarkable
species, the history of which, not being myself personally acquainted with it, I
shall endeavour to complete by adding some notes of Mr. DOUGLAS.
     "Tetrao Urophasianus, Pi-imsh of the Wallah Wallah Indians, Mak-esh-too-yoo
of the Nezpercee Indians, is first met with about fifty miles west of the Black
Hills.  We lose sight of it in pursuing the route by the Snake river until we
reach Wallah Wallah, on the banks of the Columbia, near the mouth of Lewis
river.  This bird is only found on the plains which produce the worm-wood
(Artemisia), on which plant it feeds, in consequence of which the flesh is so
bitter that it is rejected as food.  It is very unsuspicious, and easily
approached, rarely flies unless hard pressed, runs before you at the distance of
a few feet, clucking like the common hen, often runs under the horses of
travellers when disturbed, rises very clumsily, but when once started, flies
with rapidity to a great distance, and has the sailing motion of the Pinnated
Grouse.  In the autumn they frequent the branches of the Columbia river, where
they feed on a narrow-leaved plant.  At this time they are considered good food
by the natives, who take great quantities of them in nets.  J. K. TOWNSEND."
     "On the north branch of the Platte (Larimie's Fork) we begin to meet with
the Tetrao Urophasianus in considerable numbers, always on the ground in small
flocks or pairs, by no means shy, but when too nearly approached arising with a
strong whirring noise, and uttering at the same time a rather loud but very
short alarmed guttural cackle.  The notes of the female indeed, at such times,
almost resemble those of a common hen.  The old male, when killed by Mr.
TOWNSEND, turned out so different from the imperfect and unadult specimens
figured, that we could scarcely recognise it for the same species.  Its size
seemed to promise a fine meal, but appearances are often deceitful, and after
being nicely broiled, it truly deserved to be treated like the well prepared
plate of cucumbers, proving so very bitter, though delicately white, that our
hungry hunters could scarcely swallow more than a morsel.  In short, it feeds by
choice on the bitterest shrubs of these sterile plains, and under-wood (several
species of Artemisia) is literally its favourite food.  Of its nest and breeding
habits we ascertained nothing, but cannot for a moment hesitate to say that some
mistake must exist in either asserting or supposing that a bird so constantly
confined to the open desert plains, could retire to the shady forests and dark
alluvial thickets of the Columbia to rear its young apart from their usual food
and habits.  We met with this very fine Grouse near to the plains around Wallah
Wallah, on the south side of the Columbia, but never saw it either in the
forests of the Columbia or the Wahlamet, nor, so far as we know, has it ever
been found on the coast of California, or in the interior of Mexico.  T.
NUTTALL."
     Mr. DOUGLAS'S statement is as follows:--"The flight of these birds is slow,
unsteady, and affords but little amusement to the sportsman.  From the
disproportionately small, convex, thin-quilled wing,--so thin that a vacant
space half as broad as a quill appears between each,--the flight may be said to
be a sort of fluttering, more than any thing else:  the bird giving two or three
claps of the wings in quick succession, at the same time hurriedly rising; then
shooting or floating, swinging from side to side, gradually falling, and thus
producing a clapping, whirring sound.  When started, the voice is cuck, cuck,
cuck, like the Common Pheasant.  They pair in March and April.  Small eminences
on the banks of streams are the places usually selected for celebrating the
weddings, the time generally about sunrise.  The wings of the male are lowered,
buzzing on the ground; the tail, spread like a fan, somewhat erect; the bare
yellow oesophagus inflated to a prodigious size,--fully half as large as his
body, and, from its soft, membranous substance, being well contrasted with the
scale-like feathers below it on the breast, and the flexile, silky feathers on
the neck, which on these occasions stand erect.  In this grotesque form he
displays, in the presence of his intended mate, a variety of attitudes.  His
love-song is a confused, grating, but not offensively disagreeable
tone,--something that we can imitate, but have a difficulty in
expressing--Hurr-hurr-hurr-r-r-r-hoo, ending in a deep, hollow tone, not unlike
the sound produced by blowing into a large reed.  Nest on the ground, under the
shade of Purshia and Artemisia, or near streams, among Phalaris arundinacea,
carefully constructed of dry grass and slender twigs.  Eggs, from thirteen to
seventeen, about the size of those of a common fowl, of a wood-brown colour,
with irregular chocolate blotches on the thick end.  Period of incubation
twenty-one to twenty-two days.  The young leave the nest a few hours after they
are hatched.  In the summer and autumn months these birds are seen in small
troops, and in winter and spring in flocks of several hundreds.  Plentiful
throughout the barren, and plains of the river Columbia; also in the interior of
North California.  They do not exist on the banks of the river Missouri; nor
have they been seen in any place east of the Rocky Mountains."


     TETRAO UROPHASIANUS, Bonap. Amer. Orn., vol. iii. pl. 21.
     TETRAO (CENTROCERCUS) UROPHASIANUS, Cock of the Plains, Swains. & Rich.
       F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 358.
     COCK OF THE PLAINS, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 666.
     COCK OF THE PLAINS, Tetrao urophasianellus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv.
       p. 503.


     Male, 30, 36.  Female, 22.
     Rocky Mountains and Columbia river, northward.  Once seen on the Missouri.
Abundant.  Partially migratory from high to low grounds in autumn and winter.
     Adult Male.
     Bill shortish, strong, somewhat compressed; upper mandible with the dorsal
line arcuato-declinate, the ridge flattened at the base and narrowed on account
of the great extent of the nasal sinus, which is feathered, the sides convex
toward the end, the edges inflected, the tip narrow and rounded; lower mandible
with the angle of moderate length and width, the dorsal line ascending and
convex, the edges sharp and inflected, the tip obtuse, but like the upp