T ET R A OX I D .E — T I r K G ROUS E. 427 



Inilians near Puget Sound, hi winter they wci-e so rarely seen west of the 

 mountains that they are lielicveil to keej) entirely in the trees. lu ()ctol)er, 

 1853, he saw a Hock running through the snow near the Spokane Plains, 

 one of which was shot ; but he never afterwards met with any in the 

 winter. 



Air. J. K. Lord found this tirouse almo.st exclusively on the western side 

 of the Eocliy Mountains. It appeared at Vancouver, at Nisqually, and 

 along the banks of the Fraser Eiver, about the end of March, the male bird 

 announcing his coming by a kind of love-song. This is a booming noise, 

 repeated at short intervals, and so deceptive that Mr. Lord has often stood 

 under the tree where the bird was perched and imagined the sound came 

 from a distance. 



]Mr. Xuttall found this Grouse breeding in the .shady forests of the region 

 of the Columbia, where he saw or heard them throughout the summer. He 

 describes the tooting made by the male as resembling the sound caused by 

 blowing into the bung-hole of a barrel. They breed on the ground, and are 

 said to keep the brood together all winter. 



Townsend describes the eggs as numerous, of a cinereous-brown color, blunt 

 at both ends, and small for the bird. The actions of the female, when the 

 young are following her, are said to be exactly similar to those of the Euffed 

 Grouse, employing all the artifices of that bird in feigning lameness, etc., to 

 draw off intruders. 



Canace obscurus, var. richardsoni, Douglas. B '^ ^"^ ' 



EICHAEDSON'S DUSKY GROUSE. 



TilTou obscurus, Avp. Orn. Biog. IV, 1S38, 446, pi. occlxv. — Ib. Syn. 1839, 283. — Ib. 

 B. Am. I, 1842, 89. — Nutt. Orn. I, 1840, 609. — Swains. F. B. A. II, 1831, 344, pi. 

 lix, Lx. Tetmo richardsmii, Dougl. Linn. Trans. XVI, 141. — Lord, Pr. R. A. I. 

 IV, 122 (laetween Cascade and Kocky Mountains). — Gr.iy, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. V, 1867, 

 86. Dcndragapus richardsoni, Elliot, P. A. N. S. 1864, 23. — Ib. Monog. Tetraon. 

 pi. — W1L.S0X, Illust. 1831, pi. -Kx-x, xxxi. 



, Sp. Char. Tail-feather,*; broail and nearly truncated ; tail almost perfectly square, and 

 black to the tip, with the terminal band either only faintly indicated or entirely wanting; 

 in all othei' respects exactly like var. ohscurus. Male (18,397, Browns Cut off. N. 

 Rocky Mountains; Lieutenant Mullan). Length, about 20.00; wing, 9.00; tail, 7.30; 

 taisu.s, 1.70; middle toe, 1.85. Female (18,398, forty miles west of Fort Benton; 

 Lieutenant Mullan). Wing, 8.60; tail, 6.00; tarsus, 1.60; middle toe, 1.60. 



Had. Rocky Mountains of British America, south to the Yellowstone and Hellgate 

 region of the United States. 



No. 18,377, Hellgate, and others from localities where this form and var. 

 ohscurus approach each other, have the terminal zone of the tail of tlie usual 

 width, and even shai'iily defined ; but it is so dark as to be scarcely dis- 

 tinguishaljle from the ground-color. 



