TETRAONID.E — THE GEULSK. 425 



comes quite attracitive to the epicure. The love-notes of this bird are said 

 to be deep, soft, plaintive, but unmusical, and resemble the whirring sounds 

 made by a rattan, swung rapidly and in jerks through the air. Tliese uot(!S 

 usually begin the first week in March. The young are able to Hy feebly by 

 the first of Jidy. By the last of August they have attained their full size, 

 lu the winter they retire to the tops of the loftiest firs, where they pass 

 the season in an almost immovable state of hibernation. Between July and 

 winter they may be readily shot. Once raised, they invariably fly to trees. 

 They heed but little the report of a gun unless they have been wounded. 

 Their flesh is said to be midway between the color of the Pinuated 

 and the Eufl'ed Grouse, partaking of their good equalities, but surpassing 

 either. 



The eggs of this species are oval in shape ; one end is a little more obtuse 

 than the other. Tlie ground is of a pale cream-color, and is marked with 

 small rounded spots of reddish-brown. These are more numerous and larger 

 towards the larger end. They measure 1.95 inches in length and 1.45 in 

 breadth. 



Canace obscurus, \ar. fuliginosus, Pjdgway. 



OREGON DUSKY GKOUSE. 



.' Tdrao obscurus, Newbekry, P. l\. K. Kept. VI, iv, 1S57, 93. —Coop. & Suckl. 219. — 

 LoED, Pr. K. A. Inst. IV, 122 (British Columbia). — Dall & Bannister, Trans. 

 Chicago Ac. I, 1869, 287 (Alaska). — FixsoH, Ab. Nat. Ill, 1872, 61 (Alaska). 



Sp. Char. Beneath plain dark phimbeous, without whitish border.'; to the feathers 

 except on flanks and crissum ; whole head almost uniformly plain dusky-black. Tarsi 

 dark plumbeous. Winff, 9.50; tail, 7.50; tarsus, 1.75; middle toe, 1.80. 



Female (11,826, Chiloweyuck Depot, Washington Territory, Aug. G, 1858 ; C. B. 

 Kennerly). Above black, broken by transverse mottlings of bright reddish-brown or 

 rufous; these confused posteriorly, but in form of regular transverse bars anteriorly. 

 Below du.sky-plumbeous, plain on abdomen, with sagittate spots on jugulum, and deltoid 

 ones on the flanks, etc., of reddish-white. Length, 20.00 ; wing, 8.50 ; tail, 6.30. 



Adult male (4,505, Cascade Mountains, Dr. ISIewljerry). Above plain fuliginous-blaek, 

 the mottlings scarcely apparent. No white markings on scapulars ; tail-band deep 

 plumbeous, only .60 wide, but well defined. 



Young (11,827, Chiloweyuck Depot). Similar to, but much more reddish than, young 

 of var. ohncnrii.i. 



Hab. Xorthwest coast region, from Oregon to Sitka. 



A male (46,070, May, 1866 ; Bischoif ) from Sitka is much mottled witli 

 bright reddish-rusty on the dorsal region, and washed with the same on the 

 forehead. (Tail-band .60 of an inch wide). A female (46,073, Sept., 1866) 

 from same locality is so strongly washed with dark, almost castaneous, ferru- 

 ginous as to appear mostly of this color above, tliis being very bright on 

 the crown and forehead. 



Habits. This race is the more northern and nortli western coast form of 



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