SOOTY GROUSE 103 



approach as any barn-yard fowl. I have, however, seen an occasional covey of 

 young birds that was extremely hard to approach. The broods often feed over 

 open meadows, where they are exposed to attack by hawks and other enemies, 

 and there must be a heavy mortality from such causes. That this is so is borne 

 out by the small size of most of the broods encountered, and by the number 

 of hens seen with no broods at all. 



DENDRAGAPUS FULIGINOSUS FULIGINOSUS (Ridgway) 

 SOOTY GROUSE 



HABITS 



In the heavily timbered, humid coast ranges, from southern Alaska 

 to extreme northern California, we find one of the most widely dis- 

 tributed and best-known races of the " blue grouse " group. It is 

 the darkest of all the races, except the extremely dark race of the 

 closely related species D. dbscurus fle?}iingi, which is found in north- 

 ern British Columbia. All the " blue grouse " (genus Dendraga- 

 pus) have until recently been regarded as subspecies of Dendragapus 

 obscurus, but the studies and suggestions of Allan Brooks (1912, 

 1926, and 1929) and of Harry S. Swarth (1926) have resulted in 

 separating the various races into two groups as subspecies of two 

 distinct species. The new A. O. U. Check List, therefore, gives 

 three races of the Rocky Mountain, or eastern, group, obscurus, 

 richardsoni, and flemingi, all as subspecies of obscurus; and this 

 leaves the four coastal, or western, races, fuliginosus, sierrae, sit- 

 kensis, and hoivardi, as subspecies of a new species, fuliginosus. 

 Major Brooks (1926) gives the following distinctive characters of 

 the two groups : 



Group I, including richardsoni and fiemingi. 



1. Air sacs. Skin not conspicuously thickened or corrugated even in the 



mating season, color flesh, changing to purple red under the influence of 

 excitement. 



2. Voice. " Hooting of five or six notes audible for less than 100 yards, 



uttered from the ground. Note : The single hoot when in full display 

 is alike and common to both groups. 



3. Tail. In adult males, squarer, the feathers truncate at the tips; terminal 



band of gray darker, sometimes (rarely) absent or but faintly indicated. 

 Group II, including fuliginosus, sitkensis, sierrae and hoivardi. 



1. Air sacs. Skin highly specialized in the mating season, thick, gelatinous, 



the surface deeply corrugated into a series of tubercles of a velvety 

 texture and of a deep yellow color. This condition is reduced when the 

 mating period is over. 



2. "Voice. " Hooting " of five or six notes of great power, audible for several 



miles. Always (?) uttered from high up in a tree. 



3. Tail. In adult males rounded, the feathers rounded at the tips ; terminal 



band of light gray averaging narrower than in group No. I. 



For a further, detailed discussion of the question the reader is 

 referred to Mr. Swarth's (1926) remarks under fiemingi, with a map 



