388 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



years ago, one of his sons found a Grouse's nest with fifteen eggs, 

 which he brought home, and immediately placed beneath a hen then 

 sitting, taking away her own. The nest of the Grouse was on the 

 ground, under a tussock of long grass, formed with very little art, 

 and few materials : the eggs were brownish-white, and about the 

 size of a pullet's. In three or four days, the whole were hatched. 

 Instead of following the hen, they compelled her to run after Ihem, 

 distracting her with the extent and diversity of their wanderings ; 

 and it was a day or two before they seemed to understand her 

 language, or consent to be guided by her. They were let out to 

 the fields, where they paid little regard to their nurse ; and, in a 

 few days, only three of them remained. These became extremely 

 tame and familiar, were most expert flycatchers ; but, soon after, 

 they also disappeared. 



The eggs of this species are generally ovoidal in form, 

 and are often pretty sharply tapered at their small ends. 

 They vary in color from a dirty-drab to a grayish-white, and 

 are covered more or less thickly with fine spots or dots of 

 brown : some specimens have none of these markings, while 

 others are abundantly spotted. A large number of speci- 

 mens in my collection average about 1.80 by 1.25 inch in 

 dimensions. 



BONASA, Stephens. 



Bonasa, Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool., XL (1819). (Type Tetrao bonasia, L.) 

 Tail widening to the end, its feathers very broad, as long as the wings ; the 

 feathers soft, and eighteen in number; tarsi naked in the lower half; covered with 

 two rows of hexagonal scales anteriorly, as in the Ortyf/ime; sides of toes strongly 

 pectinated ; naked space on the side of throat covered by a tuft of broad soft feathers ; 

 portion of culmen between the nasal fossae about one-third the total length ; top of 

 head with a soft crest. 



BONASA TJMBIiLLVS. — Stephens. 

 The Ruffed Grouse ; Partridge ; Pheasant. 



Tetrao umbellm, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 275. "Wils. Am. Om., VI. 

 (1812) 46. Aud. Orn. Biog., L (1831) 211; V. 560. 



Tetrao (Bonasia) umbellus, Bonaparte. Syn. (1828), 126. Nutt. Man., I. '» 1832) 

 657. 



Bmasa umbellus, Stephens. Shaw, Gen. Zool., XL (1824) 300. 



