GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 127 



GENUS BONASA. 



General Characters. Head with a short crest ; sides of neck with a 

 black or brown ruff of soft, broad-webbed feathers ; tail nearly as long- as 

 wing 1 , fan-shaped. 



KEY TO SPECIES. 



1. Upper parts dark rusty brown sabini, p. 128. 



1'. Upper parts not dark rusty brown. 



2. Upper parts, including- tail, gray .... umbelloides, p. 128. 



2'. Upper parts gray and brown, tail sometimes ochraceous. 



togata, p. 127. 



300a. Bonasa umbellus togata (Linn.). CANADIAN RUFFED 



GROUSE. 



Similar to B. u. umbelloides, but darker ; upper parts mixed with gray, 

 sometimes mostly gray ; under parts more heavily marked with brown, flanks 

 barred with dark brown or black ; tail brown or gray. 



Distribution. Resident in the Canadian zone forests of the northeastern 

 United States, British Provinces, and eastern parts of Oregxm and Wash- 

 ington. 



Nest and eggs similar to those of umbelloides. 



Food. Largely buds, leaves, berries, fungus, seeds, and nuts. 



While common in its various forms over much of the northwestern 

 United States and the Rocky Mountain region, the ruffed grouse -is 

 less famed as a game bird in the west than in the east, probably 

 because other and larger grouse claim more attention. Wherever 

 flushed its quick flight and long, black-banded tail distinguish it 

 from all others of the family, while a strutting old male, stepping 

 daintily along a trail in the shady forest with black epaulettes 

 slightly lifted and tail half spread, has a grace and elegance found 

 in no other North American grouse. 



Purely a bird of the forest, it relies largely upon cover and its 

 mottled coat for protection, and when flushed, if possible puts a 

 tree between itself and the hunter as it whirrs away to light out of 

 sight on the far side of a gray trunk. There it draws itself up and 

 stands as rigid as a branch. How well it knows how far to trust 

 itself, breaking away at the first intelligent gleam from the pur- 

 suer's eye! But with all the skill and untamable wildness of the 

 grouse, it needs rigid protection from the day it leaves the eggshell. 

 A brood of bob-tailed young buzzing from the grass up on to the 

 branches are easily potted, and in winter a flock noisily picking 

 birch and alder-buds in the treetops are sadly exposed to the con- 

 scienceless hunter below. 



While the snow is on the ground the birds feed mainly on buds, 

 and usually have a warm bed under the snow. Before the snow is 

 all gone in spring, each male selects his drumming ground, a log, 

 a rock, or merely an open spot of ground, and begins his drum- 



