GRAY RUFFED GROUSE 171 



registers 35° below zero, the 10 inches of snow which fell before the severe 

 frost came, has effectually kept the wet earth in the woods from freezing, 

 although the temperature has been at or below zero for over a week. In 

 view of these facts it is easy to understand that the grouse in the snow drift 

 are quite comfortable during the coldest nights. In general the bird will be 

 found to run about before burrowing into the drift; each makes its own bed, 

 usually 10 or 20 feet from its neighbor ; they usually go down a foot or so and 

 along 2 feet ; they pass the whole night in one bed if undisturbed, as the large 

 amount of dung left behind would indicate. They do not come out at the 

 ingress, but burst through the roof of their cot at one side ; they do not usually 

 go straight ahead and out, because their breath during the whole night has 

 been freezing into an icy wall just before their nostrils. 



BONASA UMBELLUS UMBELLOIDES (Douglas) 

 GRAY RUFFED GROUSE 



HABITS 



The name gray ruffed grouse describes very well the characters on 

 which this race of the ruffed grouse is based; it is a decidedly gray 

 bird. Its range extends from Mackenzie south through the Rocky 

 Mountain valleys and east to the western edge of the Great Plains. 

 The birds found in Manitoba, of which we collected a good series, 

 are intermediate between this and togata. It intergrades with 

 sabini where their ranges meet. 



Harry S. Swarth (1924) found it " abundant throughout the pop- 

 lar woods of the lowlands " in the Skeena River region of northern 

 British Columbia, where the birds are " less grayish, more brownish " 

 than typical unibelloides. In the Stikine River region he (1922) 

 found the birds " relatively gray colored, but not so ashy " as the 

 birds from the Yukon region (yukonensis) ; they are practically the 

 same as unibelloides from Alberta. 



In the Glacier National Park, Mont., Mrs. Florence M. Bailey 

 (1918) found this grouse " in the pines and aspen thickets of the 

 eastern slope and also in the dense hemlock woods of the western 

 slope of the mountains." M. P. Skinner has sent me the following 

 notes on its haunts in the Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. : 



This grouse is more likely to be in the aspen groves than Richardson's 

 grouse is. In fact, it is quite apt to prefer the aspen groves, but it is also 

 found in forests of fir, mixed aspen and fir, lodgepole pine, mixed aspen and 

 lodgepole, and in the spruce forests. Although this grouse is rather scarce 

 in Yellowstone National Park, it frequents the forest in all sections between 

 6,500 and 8,500 feet elevation, but I do not find them in the timber-line forests. 

 It seems to be in heavy, thick standing forests, open forests, and thick sapling 

 growth. Occasionally it is found out on the grasslands, but not so much as 

 Richardson's grouse. Still, I think the gray ruffed grouse rather prefers an 

 open stand of trees, especially if berries are present. 



Courtship. — Skinner says that " as early as March 20 the males 

 begin to strut and court the females. One day I found a pair near 



