RUFFED GROUS. 661 



their leafy roosts. By this system of indiscriminate extir- 

 pation, they are now greatly thinned throughout the more 

 populous parts of the Union; and sell in Philadelphia 

 and New York from 75 cents to a dollar apiece. The 

 common price of these birds, decidedly, as I think, with 

 Audubon, superior in flavor to the Pinnated Grous, is, in 

 the market of Boston, from 40 to 50 cents the pair, show- 

 ing how much more abundant the species is in the rocky 

 regions of New England than in any other part of Amer- 

 ica. Deleterious effects have sometimes occurred from 

 eating this game, supposed to arise from their feeding 

 on the buds of the broad-leaved Kalmia ; yet most persons 

 eat them with safety at all seasons of the year, even 

 when these kinds of buds have been found almost filling 

 the stomach. 



The length of this species is about 18 inches, alar extent 2 feet. 

 Head, neck, and crest, black and pale chesnut in spots and bars. Low- 

 er part of the back and rump dusky, the feathers broadly terminated 

 with chesnut and grey, mottled with dusky, a roundish paler spot to- 

 wards the ends of the feathers. The black ruif presenting violet re- 

 flections ; coverts of the wings more mottled and rufous, a number of 

 the tertials, with conspicuous oblong whitish-brown spots on the outer 

 webs only ; primaries pale dusky, the inner webs brownish-white with 

 darkish spots : 4 th primary longest, long axillary feathers white with 

 grey bars. Throat pale rufous, with dusky spots below the feathers 

 with pale rufous and grey bars, and broad white tips; downy vent 

 feathers appearing nearly white ; the lower tail-coverts pale rufous 

 with inverse arrow-heads of white. The flanks most distinctly bar- 

 red. Feet and bill pale livid brown. Iris hazel. In many birds the 

 tail is almost wholly grey ; in others ferruginous, and the general 

 plumage brighter brown. — In Audubon's bird, much brighter than 

 they ever occur in New England ; the axillary feathers are said to 

 be light chesnut only. 



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