Grey Ruffled Grouse 147 



Gale. Henshaw's nest, which contained seven eggs 

 about to hatch, was found on the Upper Rio Grande 

 on June 18th. 



Genus BON AS A. 



Head with a full, soft crest ; base of the neck with a ruff of black, 

 fan-shaped feathers, concealing a rudimentary drum ; less developed 

 in the female ; tail of normally eighteen feathers, long, nearly equalling 

 the wing, truncate and sHghtly rounded ; tarsus half bare of feathers, 

 covered in front by two or three rows of scutes. 



One species only, confined to North America, but forming three local 

 races, makes up this genus. 



Grey Ruffled Grouse, Bonasa umbellus umbelloides. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 300b— Colorado Records— Allen 72, p. 181 ; 

 Morrison 88, p. 139 ; 89, p. 181 ; Cooke 97, pp. 70, 159, 202. 



Description. — Above variegated brown, black, white and grey, chiefly 

 the latter, spotted with i^aler dark-edged cordate or arrow-headed 

 markings on the back and rump ; tail-feathers grey, vermiculated 

 with black and with a subterminal black band ; below whitish, tinged 

 with tawny, with brown cross-bars on most of the feathers ; fore-neck 

 and throat mingled brown, grey and white ; on each side of the neck 

 covering the shoulders a tuft of broad, soft, spreading, glossy, greenish- 

 black feathers — the ruff or ruffle. Length about 17-0 ; wing 7*25 ; 

 tail 6'50 ; cuknen '70; tarsus 1'65. 



The female is smaller— wing 6-75 — and has the ruffle less developed 

 or even obsolete. Young birds are somewhat similar, but with more 

 brown and without ruffles. 



Distribution. — The Rocky Mountains region of North America from 

 Alaska and Yukon to Utah and Colorado. 



The Ruffled Grouse is a very rare bird in Colorado, but appears to 

 be a resident at lower elevations in the mountains. An example was 

 shot and others seen about eighteen miles south of Denver in December, 

 1894 (Cooke) ; Mr. L. D. Gilmore saw five near Sweetwater Lake in 

 Garfield co., January 3rd, 1898, and several more subsequently, while 

 Cooke was fortunate enough to see a family of old and young birds, 

 August 12th, 1899, on the South Fork in Estes Park, which seems to 

 point to their having bred in Colorado. There is no other definite 

 record. 



Habits. — The Ruffled Grouse is celebrated for its 

 " drumming," a performance carried out by the male 



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