GRAY RUFFED GROUSE 173 



the bushes and charged us furiously. She kept tail and ruff widely spread, 

 the head crest depressed. She was mewling in a very catlike fashion, and 

 also hissing from time to time. There was an occasional faint peep from the 

 grass nearby, and once I caught a glimpse of a yellow chick slipping away 

 through the shubbery, but the young were too agile to be captured. 



The young of the second brood were somewhat larger and able to fly. This 

 second mother tried to toll us away from the chicks by feigning a broken 

 wing; the noise she made was not unlike the whining of a small puppy. 

 Her actions, all together, gave the impression that she was frightened rather 

 than angry. However, if frightened, she still did not desert her trust, but re- 

 mained nearby, dragging herself back and forth across the road, with wings 

 dropping and all her feathers pressed closely against her body. Her tail was 

 not spread nor were her ruffs displayed at any time, all in striking contrast 

 to the behavior of the first bird that morning. 



Plumages. — The molts and plumages are similar to those of the 

 eastern bird. It has a red phase, which apparently occurs about as 

 often as the gray phase occurs in the eastern birds. Swarth (1924) 

 collected two red-tailed birds in a series of 14 in the Skeena River 

 region. Ernest Thompson Seton (1885) has described the red phase, 

 as it occurs in Manitoba, as follows : " In general appearance this 

 bird differs but little from the well known Bonasa umbeUus umbel- 

 loides, but it is distinguished by being more decidedly marked — thus 

 the bars on the belly are complete and nearly black — and by having 

 copper-colored touches on the back, the subterminal tail-band and 

 the ruff a rich, iridescent, coppery red." He says that about 10 

 per cent of the birds have copper ruffs and only about 20 per cent are 

 pure umbelloides. 



Food. — Skinner says of its food in the Yellowstone : " In spring, 

 they eat the buds of aspens. In summer, they frequent berry patches 

 and sometimes visit small openings for grasshoppers. In winter, 

 they are said to eat mistletoe berries." In the Stikine region Swarth 

 (1922) found that the food was practically all vegetable matter, 

 consisting of leaves and stems of Populus, Galium, Artemisia, and 

 Viburnum, with a few berries. 



Behavior. — Skinner contributes the following notes on the behavior 

 of the gray ruffed grouse : 



These are resident birds, remaining throughout the year in one locality, and 

 I see no evidence that they even move up and down the mountains, as other 

 resident species do. But in winter they live mostly in the treetops, and we 

 do not see them on the ground much before March 15 or April 1. Although 

 these birds have the same habits and probably the same disposition toward 

 their environment as the eastern ruffed grouse originally did, they have retained 

 their comparative tameness toward man under the protection accorded in 

 Yellowstone National Park. My notes are full of references to them as " quite 

 tame " and " very tame," but occasionally I find one that is wild. The tame 

 ones are recorded in all places, at every elevation within the bird's range, and at 

 all seasons. This unsuspicious attitude extends also to men on horseback, the 

 grouse sitting or remaining in their tracks while the horseman rides by, although 



