REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 31I 



Subfamily TetraonincB — The Grouse. 



Subfamily characters : Gallinaceous birds with the margins of the toes distinctly 

 pectinated in winter ; the tarsi at least half feathered: the nasal fossae densely filled 

 with feathers (so as to completely enclose and partially conceal the nostril) ; sides of 

 neck often with an inflatable air sac. A bare (usually red or yellow) space over eyes. 



Genus BONASA Stephens. 



Bonasa Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Z06I. xi, 18 19, 2q8. 



Type, Tetrao bonasia Linn. 



Tetrastes Keys. & Bias. Wirb. Europ., 1840, p. Ixiv. 



General characters : Tail fan-shaped, its feathers very broad, soft, as long as the 

 wings; eighteen in number. Tarsi naked for the lower half; covered with two rows 

 of hexagonal scales anteriorly. Sides of toes strongly pectinated (in winter). Side of 

 neck with a tuft of very broad, soft feathers. Portion of culmen between the nasal 

 fossae about one-third the total length. Top of head with soft crest. 



Bonasa tmtbclhis (Lmnaeus). RuFFED GROUSE. 



Popular synonyms : " Partridge " (in New England) ; " Pheasant " (in Southern and 

 Western States) ; Ruffled Grouse ; Drumming Grouse. 



Habitat. — Eastern United States, south to the Gulf coast (?). [Replaced from 

 Manitoba, northwestward, and also in the Rocky Mountains, by a gray race {Bonasa 

 umbellits uinbclloides), and on the coast of Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia 

 by the dark rusty Bonasa luiihcllus sabini (Douglass).] 



Specific characters: Above ochraceous-brown finely mottled with grayish; the 

 scapulars and wing-coverts with pale shaft-streaks, the rump and upper tail-coverts 

 with median cordate spots of pale grayish. Tail ochraceous-rufous, narrowly barred 

 with black, crossed terminally with a narrow band of pale ash ; then a broader one 

 of black, this preceded by another ashy one. (In specimens from the Alleghany 

 Mountains and New England States, the tail usually more or less grayish to the base, 

 sometimes entirely destitute of rufous tinge.) Throat and foreneck ochraceous. 

 Lower parts white (ochraceous beneath the surface), with broad transverse bars of 

 dilute brown, these mostly concealed on the abdomen. Lower tail-coverts pale 

 ochraceous, each with a terminal deltoid spot of white, bordered with dusky. Neck- 

 tufts brown or black. Length, 18.00; wing, 7.20; tail, 7.00 (in.). />;««/,? smaller, 

 and with the neck-tufts less developed, but colors similar. Young (No. 39,161 St. 

 Stephen's N. B. ; G. A. Boardman) : brown above and dingy white beneath ; a rufous 

 tinge on the scapulars. Feathers of the jugulum, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts 

 with broad median streaks of light ochraceous, and black spots on the webs ; jugulum 

 with strong bufT tinge. Secondaries and wing-coverts strongly mottled transversely. 

 Head dingy bufT, the upper part more rusty; a postocular or auricular dusty patch, 



