The Bird Itself 7 



grouse. "Similar to B. u. togata, but the upper parts in general are 

 giayer, less brownish, and thus lighter in tone, particularly on the 

 secondaries, scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts. The under 

 parts are also lighter colored on the average, and the dark barring is 

 less intense. Similar to B. u. medianus, but the upper parts are gen- 

 erally darker, more grayish and less rufescent, and the tail is obvi- 

 ously darker gray; the buff of the under parts as a rule is not so 

 rich and deep. The general coloration is lighter than B. u. umbel- 

 loides." Its range is described as "from Labrador west to James Bay 

 and thence to eastern Manitoba." 



While Todd is proposing the addition of three new subspecies 

 of Bonasa umbellus he suggests that the subspecies B. u. thayeri, ac- 

 cepted by the A.O.U. Check List as authentic, is actually identical 

 with B. u. togata. He also indicates his belief that B. u. brunnescens, 

 proposed by Conover, is adequately covered by B. u. sabini. In sum- 

 mary, Todd would recognize eight subspecies, although he says 

 frankly, "A number of problems concerning distribution and sys- 

 tematics are necessarily left unsettled." 



This is apparently the case, for only a year later Bailey ( 1941 ) de- 

 scribes another subspecies from Long Island, N. Y. Proposed as B. m. 

 helmet, it is described: "A small ruffed grouse . . . very light buffy 

 throat and a light-colored upper mandible . . . more whitish belly 

 than any of the other races, heavily baiTcd below with blackish; 

 dark-breasted, but with more buffy breast than togata; neck ruffs 

 and subteiTninal tail band black . . . gray-tailed type with few ex- 

 ceptions." 



Recently, a complete taxonomic revision of the species was pro- 

 posed by Aldrich and Friedmann (1943). They did not simplffy 

 the matter, but did provide sound ecological basis for their oganiza- 

 tion. Twelve subspecies are recognized, eight previously described 

 and four new ones. Three of those discussed above are discarded. 

 Those substantiated are: umbellus, togata, umbelloides, sabini, iju- 

 konensis, brunnescens, monficoh, medianus. Discarded are: thayeri, 

 recognized in the A.O.U. Check List but considered by these authors 

 to be the same as togata; canescens, described by Todd but here in- 

 cluded with umbelloides; and helmei, which is covered by the type 

 form B. u. umbellus. The four new subspecies described are cas- 

 taneus, affinis, phaios, and incanus. These are distinguished as 

 follows : 



The Olympic ruffed grouse, B. u. castaneus, is the "darkest and 



