franklin's grouse 139 



win their confidence completely and to watch their engaging ways that it was 

 trying to have to leave them and pass on up the trail. 



Plumages. — The Franklin's grouse chick is beautifully colored. 

 The central crown patch, which is bordered with black, and the 

 upper parts in general are rich brown, from " Sanf ord's brown " to 

 " amber brown " ; the colors of the forehead, sides of the head, and 

 underparts vary from " mustard yellow " to " Naples yellow," deep- 

 est and tinged with brownish on the forehead and flanks, and palest 

 on the sides of the head and belly; there are black spots below the 

 eyes, on the lores and auriculars, on the lower forehead, and on the 

 rump ; and there is a black ring around the neck. 



The juvenal plumage comes in first on the wings, when the chick 

 is only a few days old, then on the scapulars, back, flanks, and breast, 

 in that order; the tail appears next and the head and neck are the 

 last to be feathered. By the time the young bird is half grown 

 it is fully clothed in juvenal plumage. The feathers of the upper 

 parts are beautifully patterned in rich browns, black, and white; 

 those of the crown are barred with black and white; those of the 

 back, scapulars, wing coverts, and flanks are barred and patterned 

 with " tawny " and " ochraceous-tawny," and have narrow bars or 

 large areas of black separated by bars of creamy white; many of 

 these have central shaft stripes of creamy white, broadening on 

 some into a white tip ; the breast is " cinnamon-buff " or yellowish 

 white, with large black spots; the chin and throat are white and 

 the belly grayish white; the tail is barred with sepia and grayish 

 buff and tipped with white. During the latter part of August the 

 molt begins from the juvenal plumage, in which the sexes are alike, 

 into the first winter plumage. This is a complete molt, except that 

 the two outer primaries on each wing are retained for a year. The 

 sexes now differentiate and look much like adults, though the black 

 areas are less purely black and there is more white spotting. 



Adults may have a very limited prenuptial molt in spring, but 

 they have a complete postnuptial molt in summer and early in fall. 

 J. H. Riley (1912), who collected a fine series of these grouse in 

 British Columbia, says : 



The males were never found with the females and young, but always by 

 themselves and in full molt, July 18th to 21st, while at this time it had barely 

 begun in the females. All the males taken had molted the tail and the new 

 feathers were just appearing, while the only female taken that the molt had 

 progressed so far was shot August 27th. This seems to show that while the 

 female is brooding and bringing up the young, which she does unaided by her 

 spouse, he goes on by himself and moults, while the process in the female 

 is delas'ed until her young are able to shift for themselves. 



In the series of females collected tnere are two phases of plumage; one of 

 which I shall call the red phase and the other the gray phase. In the red 

 phase the lower parts, down to the abdomen, are tawny ochraceous with the 



