386 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIKDS 



CHAPTER V. 

 THE GAME-BIKDS. (See §29.) 



§30. Tetraonidse. Grouse. 



I. TETRAO (CANACE) , 



(A) CANADENSIS.^ Canada Grouse. '■'■ Spruce Partridge." 



(A resident of northern New England, but in Massachusetts 

 accidental.) 



(«). About sixteen inches long. (^ , black ; waved with a 

 paler shade above, and extensive!}' edged on the breast and 

 sides with white. " Ej'e-brow " red. Head and wings with a 

 few white markings. TcuY, tisually of sixteen feathers, and 

 broadhj tipped icith orange-hroivn. Brown markings sometimes 

 occur elsewhere in the male, jind in the female are persistently 

 numerous. 



(b). The eggs, which are laid upon the ground, are described 

 by Mr. Sanluels as " of a beautiful A-ellowish-bufi" color, with 

 spots and blotches of two shades of brown : one a purplish- 

 brown ; the other, a burnt sienna." In size they difler but 

 little from those of the Rutied Grouse. 



(c). The Canada Grouse are common residents in many 

 .parts of northern New Pilngland, especiallj' Northern Maine, 

 but in Massachusetts they are of accidental occurrence, and I 

 find records of onh' two captures in this State, one '' in the 

 hemlock woods of Gloucester, in September, 1851, another at 

 Roxlniry." These birds are rare among the White Mountains, 

 so far as I know, as I have but occasionally seen them there. 



' The Wliite or Willow Ptarmigan {Lagopuit albus) is said to occur ns a winter 

 visitiiiit ill Nortlicrn New EngLind. At Iliis time it is cliaraclerized by tlic puro 

 M-hite i)luni;if,'e. .•ijul its black conliiicil to tlie tail. In summer it is iiiarl;eil with 

 black and browns. It is about sixtecMi indies long. An allied but "rather 

 f mallei" species, confliied to Arctic Aiiicrica, has a slenderer bill, and, in the male, 

 a bla(;k eye-.>-tri|)e. The ptarmigans have reallicred toes. 



N. B.— The W'ild Turkey has lor many years been exterminated in New Eng- 

 land. 



