120 BULLETIN 162, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



color. Harry S. Swarth (1921) has described this race under the 

 name sitkensis, characterizing it as 



most nearly like Dendragapus obsrurus fitliginosiix. Adult male not appreciably 

 different from the male of D. o. fuligino&uz. Adult female aud immature of 

 both sexes, as compared with those of fuliginosiis, much more reddish in general 

 coloration. This color feature affects practically all the plumage except some 

 limited areas, as the slaty colored abdominal tract, the chin and throat, and 

 the unmarked and generally concealed portions of the remiges and rectrices. 

 The predominant color dorsally is close to pecan brown. Individual feathers 

 are barred with black and brown, and are brown tipped. On head and neck 

 brown predominates, the narrow black bands being almost entirely hidden. 

 Upper tail coverts and central rectrices are conspicuously of this reddish brown 

 color. Breast and sides are mostly pecan brown and black. There are con- 

 spicuous white spots on sides of breast and flanks. Tarsus brown. 



Female fuliginosus, in comparison, is colored as follows : The upper parts 

 are a duller brown with a great deal of black showing through and with the 

 brown everywhere sprinkled with black or gray. There are no pure reddish 

 brown areas as in sitkensis. The neck above is predominantly grayish ; upper 

 tail coverts and remiges are mostly grayish. Breast and sides are mostly gray 

 and black, with very little reddish. Feathers on sides of breast are dull 

 brownish, mottled with black and tipped with white. Flanks are mostly grayish. 

 Tarsus gi'ay. 



There are four eggs of the Sitka grouse in the collection of P. B. 

 Phillip, which measure 52.7 by 35.3, 52.7 by 35.1, 52.7 by 35.1, and 

 49.7 by 35.1 millimeters. 



Alfred M. Bailey (1927) says of their habits: 



The birds are often so high they will not flush with the discharge of a gun ; in 

 fact, I have seen a Grouse sit within twenty feet of a gunner, who tired a dozen 

 shots with a high power rifle in an attempt to shoot the bird in the head, with- 

 out the bird seeming the least alarmed. In the early fall, many repair to 

 the mountain tops with their broods, where they find ample cover among the 

 dwarfed pines and dense alder thickets; then they drop to sea level during the 

 cold winter months, and one will often see them below snow line, where the 

 tide has cleaned the beaches. They feed on the hillsides, among the dead devil- 

 club and berry bushes, and rarely fly when one passes. Although strongly 

 tainted with the spruce, which makes up a great part of their food, the flesh of 

 these birds affords a welcome addition to the camp-fare when one is afield. 



CANACHITES CANADENSIS CANADENSIS (Linnaeus) 

 HUDSONIAN SPRUCE GROUSE 



HABITS 



« !ON TRIBUTE!) BY CHARLES WENDELL TOWNSEND 



The Hudsonian spruce grouse thrives best in regions where man 

 is absent. In fact it remains so woefully ignorant of the destructive 

 nature of the human animal that, unlike its cousin, the ruffed grouse, 

 it rarely learns to run or fly away, but allows itself to be shot, 

 clubbed, or noosed, and, in consequence, has earned for itself the 



