OREGON RUFFED GROUSE 175 



quished gives in, and the victor mounts upon a log and proceeds to 

 drum furiously." 



Nesting. — W. Leon Dawson (1909) says: "At the foot of a maple 

 in some swampy thicket, or close beside a fallen log, the female 

 scrapes a slight depression in the earth, lining it roughly with dead 

 leaves and a few small twigs." 



In some notes sent to me by D. E. Brown, he describes four Wash- 

 ington nests. One was at the foot of an elder tree in an old river 

 bed, in the dead leaves, with no cover at all. Two nests, found April 

 19, were in open woods, under the ends of logs. And one, found May 

 6, was at the side of a log at the edge of large woods. In all cases the 

 eggs were laid on dead leaves. Bendire (1892) describes a nest found 

 on Vancouver Island as " a slight hollow in the ground scratched 

 out by the bird, placed under the fallen branches of a spruce tree. 

 The cavity was lined with dead leaves and spruce needles, as well as 

 a few feathers. This nest was found close to a small creek and was 

 well concealed." 



William L. Finley (1896) reports a nest found by G. D. Peck in 

 Oregon that contained eight eggs of the sooty grouse and seven 

 eggs of the ruffed grouse; the sooty grouse was flushed from the 

 nest. He has also sent me a photograph of a nest containing eight 

 eggs of the ruffed grouse and three eggs of the ring-necked pheasant. 



Eggs. — The eggs are indistinguishable from those of other ruffed 

 grouse, though they may average slightly darker in color and some- 

 what more often spotted. The sets will average smaller in number. 

 The measurements of 58 eggs average 41 by 30.2 millimeters ; the eggs 

 showing the four extremes measure 44 by 31.5, 43.5 by 32, 38 by 29, 

 and 40.9 by 28.2 millimeters. 



Plumages. — Confirming what I have said elsewhere about the 

 presence of both color phases in all races of the ruffed grouse, H. S. 

 Swarth (1912), referring to a series collected on Vancouver Island, 

 says: 



The dichromatisru of the species is very apparent in the series collected, 

 the gray and the red-colored birds being conspicuously different. Those in 

 the gray phase are quite uniform in color and markings, but the reddish birds 

 show considerable variation. The former all have black ruffs, and gray tails 

 with a black subterminal band. Of the reddish birds some have red ruffs, 

 some black, and others are variously intermediate. Some have a gray tail 

 with a red band, some a red tail with a dark band, and one a red tail with a 

 darker red band. These different styles of coloration are not indicative of 

 age, sex, or season, for both phases are represented among adults and immatures 

 of both sexes. 



Food. — The food of the Oregon ruffed grouse is similar to that 

 of its eastern relatives, differing only with the available supply of 

 berries, seeds, leaves, fruits, and insects. William H. Kobbe (1900) 

 writes: "They are extremely fond of the small wild crab apples 



