TETRAONID.E — TOE GROUSE. 



423 



Female (58,036, Uintah Mountains, July o, 1S()S ; R. RIdgvvay). Somewhat similar to 

 male in pattern. Dusky-black above, nuiuh broken by narrow transverse bars of yellowish- 

 brown ; these broad, regular, and sharply defined anteriorly, posteriorly broken and 

 mottled. Middle tail-feathers much mottled, obscuring the ashy tip : ash beneath un- 

 broken only on the abdomen ; the jugulum, sides, etc., having transverse bars of yellowish- 

 brown. Wing, 8.70 ; tail, G.OO. 



Young (.58,Go8, Uintah Mountain.?, July b, ISG8; R. Ridgway). Above yellowish- 

 l)rown, the feathers with conspicuous shaft-streaks and deltoid terminal spots of vi-hite; 

 lioth webs with large, transverse, roundish spots of black ; secondaries with six bands of 

 black and white, both broken, however, by coarse mottlings ; tail like the secondaries. 

 Beneath dull whitish ; jugulum and sides with rounded spots of black, those on opposite 

 webs not joining. Head yellowish-white, crown spotted with black; an indistinct dusky 

 stripe over lores and upper edge of auriculars. 



H.\B. Rocky Mountain region of the United States, principally south of South Pass, 

 and Sierra Nevada, north to Oregon and south to San Francisco Mountains, New Mexico. 



The " Dusky Grouse " figured and described by 'Sh: Audubon of this spe- 

 cies, is not the bird of Say, nor based on .specimens collected by Town- 

 send. The figures were probably taken from the skins in possession of IMr. 

 Sabine, referred to by Bonaparte in American Ornithology (Vol. Ill, 1828, 

 36), whicli Sabine proposed to name after Richardson. Douglas, in describing 

 his Tctrao richardsoni, quotes " Sabine ilSS.," but does not describe his speci- 

 mens, and, as far as his iucomi)lete description goes, seems to have had the 

 true T. obscurus before him. Eichardson's description and figure belong to 

 the second species, the same with Audubon's. Wilson's figures, in Illustra- 

 tions of Zoology, 1831 (plates xxx, xxxi), are taken from specimens received 

 from Mr. Sabine, of the same species, but in different and less perfect 

 plumage than Mr. Audubon's. * 



H.\BiTs. Tliis species was first discovered and described by Say in 1820, 

 though its existence had previously been known to tlie fur-trappers. Its 

 food consists of various berries, and the flesh is said to be very palatable. 



Dr. Newberry pronounces this Grouse decidedly the handsomest of all the 

 American birds of this family ; its flesh white, and fully equal to that of the 

 eastern Eufted Grouse or Quail. It is said to inhabit the evergreen forests 

 exclusively, and to be found not uncommonly in the Sierra Nevada, as well 

 as in the wooded districts of the country lying between the Sacramento Val- 

 ley and tlie Columliia. In the Cascade Mountains Dr. Newberry found it 

 associated witli tlie I'lufled Grouse, which it resembles in hal>its more than 

 any other species. When on the ground they lie very close, flying up from 

 your very feet as you approach them, and, wlien flushed, always take to a 

 tree, from whicli they cannot be dislodged except by shooting them. In the 

 spring the male sits motionless on a brancli of a pine or a spruce, and utters 

 a booming call, which, by its remarkable ventriloquial powers, seems rather 

 to mislead than to direct the sportsman, unless he is experienced in shooting 

 this kind of Grouse. 



jMr. George Gibbs informed Dr. Suckley that he has met with the Dusky 

 Grouse as far south as the Russian Eiver Mountains, in California, and foiuid 



