■ LAND BIRDS. 227 



Mr. H. C. Oberholser, of Washington. He is also positive that other 

 specimens in the University of Michigan Museum, viz., one from Delta 

 county, two from Iosco county, and one from Houghton county, belong 

 to the same subspecies. Mr. Frothingham also records this subspecies 

 from the Michigan Forest Reserve in Roscommon county, where, however, 

 he believes that both forms are found. On the other hand, Mr. William 

 Brewster, who has examined most of the specimens in the Agricultural 

 College collection, states that a specimen from Kalamazoo county and 

 another from Ionia county are typical umhellus, and that, as he has equally 

 good representatives of this form from Cadillac, Wexford county (the highest 

 ground in the Lower Peninsula), and from Oden, Emmet county (the 

 northernmost county in the Lower Peninsula), he should "infer that all 

 the grouse of the Lower Peninsula are likely to be umhellus." He writes 

 further "if I were forced to name your other three skins, from the Upper 

 Peninsula, I should call them togata, but two of them are females (it is 

 always more difficult to determine birds of this sex), and the third is cer- 

 tainly not a typical togata. To that form the Chippewa county female 

 affords a rather nearer approach than does the other female (from Marquette 

 county). I should not care to definitely refer these three birds to togata, 

 but I am inclined to think they are nearer to that subspecies than to 

 umhellus" (Letter, March 18, 1907.) The Chippewa county specimen 

 referred to was taken near Eckerman by Hon. Chase S. Osborn, October 

 26, 1906, and a second specimen, also a female, almost identical in plumage, 

 was taken at the same time and sent to me, but was so badly mangled 

 that I did not send the fragmentary skin to Mr. Brewster. At my request 

 Mr. (now Governor) Osborn, who collected these specimens, examined 

 and reported upon all the partridges killed by his party at Deerfoot Lodge, 

 near Eckerman, in November and December 1906. He writes that out 

 of 81 partridges taken by himself and his friends the proportion of gray- 

 tailed birds to brown-tailed birds was about four to one, or possibly greater. 

 Several red-tailed ones were noted. Of course the gray tail is by no means 

 confined to togata, yet no distinctly rufous-tailed bird can be considered 

 typical togata. 



As at present understood the Canadian Ruffed Grouse is a bird of the 

 spruce swamps of the northernmost portions of the eastern United States, 

 but it unquestionably intergrades with the typical umhellus so as to form 

 a complete series of almost imperceptible gradations. Until we have 

 numerous specimens from all parts of the Upper Peninsula, as well as from 

 the northeastern counties of the Lower Peninsula, I do not feel safe in 

 attempting to outline the distribution of the typical Canadian form in 

 Michigan. However, it would seem perfectly safe to say that specimens 

 of typical uinhellus can be found anywhere in the Lower Peninsula and 

 almost anywhere in the Upper Peninsula, while specimens of typical 

 togata will hardly be found in the Lower Peninsula and certainly not south 

 of the Saginaw-Grand Valley. 



It would seem that the Ruffed Grouse of Wisconsin are in very similar 

 case. Mr. Brewster states that "although the Wisconsin and Michigan 

 grouse that he has examined are darker and grayer than those from New 

 England, they appear to be nearer umhellus than to true togata, which 

 almost invariably has the entire throat barred transversely with dusky 

 markings, a feature not found in our birds" (Kumlicn and Hollister, Birds 

 of Wisconsin, p. 56). 



The condition in Minnesota seems to be similar. Dr. Thomas S. Roberts, 



