THE DUSKY GROUSE. 



497 



In the winter, the plumage of the male Ptarmigan is almost wholly white, the exceptions 

 being a small patch behind the eye, the shafts of the primaries, and the bases of the fourteen 

 exterior tail-feathers, which are black. There is also a patch of red, bare skin round the eye. 

 In the summer, the black retains its position, but the white is mottled and barred with black 

 and gray. The length of the adult male is rather more than fifteen inches. 



PTARMIGAN. -Lagopua rujjeatrit. 



OF the Tetraonidce, or Grouse family, there are nine species in North America, several of 

 them having varieties in widely separated portions of the country. 



SPRUCE PARTRIDGE, or CANADA GROUSE (Canace canadensis), called also Wood Par- 

 tridge, Black, or Spotted Grouse, is found in the northern United States and as far north 

 as forests are known to extend. It abounds in all the great northern spruce woods and 

 swamps. Its migrations are not extended, as its movements depend more on the presence or 

 absence of food than temperature. Audubon found it breeding in May, in Eastport, Maine, 

 among the spruce and larches. Its habits are something like those of the turkey, and other 

 species of Grouse ; strutting before the females, and occasionally rising in the air in a spiral 

 manner, and beating their wings against the body to produce the drumming sound so charac- 

 teristic of the Ruffed Grouse. Unlike the quails, the male deserts the female after incubation 

 commences, and remains in small flocks. 



This bird is curiously averse to being disturbed or driven away. When driven to a tree 

 it persistently remains, though threatened in every possible manner even allowing itself to be 

 taken by net or noose. It is easily reared in confinement, and soon becomes domesticated. 

 Several varieties of the Spruce Partridge are recognized. Franklin's Grouse is a notable one. 

 It inhabits the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, from the sources of the Missouri River to 

 those of the Mackenzie, and is sometimes seen on the elevated plateaux of Mount Hood and 

 other high snowy peaks, it is said to be confined to the region of the Rocky Mountains and 

 the country between them and the Pacific. 



DUSKY GKOUSE (Canace obscurus). This is only next lower in size than the great Sage 

 Grouse, being considerably larger than the other species. Dr. Newberry regards it as the 

 handsomest of all the American birds of this family, though we must give the palm to our 



VOL. II.-63. 



