74 Allen's naturalist's library. 



gathers her young together again by her clucking. When sur- 

 prised, she utters a well-known danger-signal — a peculiar whine 

 — whereupon the young ones hide under logs and among grass. 

 ' " The males never congregate during the breeding-season or 

 after, and I never but once saw two adult males within one- 

 fourth of a mile of each other between April and September. 

 I consider that the drumming is not a call to the female, as 

 they drum nearly or quite as much in the fall as in the spring, 

 and I have heard them drumming every month in the year. I 

 have never seen the least evidence that the Ruffed Grouse is 

 polygamous." 



Eggs. — Eight to fourteen is the general number laid ; some- 

 times considerably more are found in a nest. Milky-white and 

 pale buff to pinkish-buff; more or less spotted, but not heavily, 

 with rounded spots and dots of paler reddish-brown. 



THE HAZEL-HENS. GENUS TETRASTES. 

 Tetrastes, Keys, und Bias. Wirbelth. Eur. pp. Ixiv. 109, 200 

 (1840.) _ 



Type, T. bonasia (Linn.). 



Feet only partially feathered, the lower part being entirely 

 naked; toes naked and pectinate along the sides; tail com- 

 posed of sixteen feathers, fairly long and bluntly wedge-shaped, 

 the outer feathers being very little shorter than the middle 

 pair. Sexes different. No ruffled frill of fan-shaped feathers 

 on the sides of the neck. 



I. THE HAZEL-HEN. TETRASTES BONASIA. 



Hazel-Ben, Willoughby, Orn. p. 126, pi. 31 (1676); Lloyd, 

 Game B. Swed. and Norw. p. 112, pi. (1867). 



Tetnw bonasia, Linn. S. N. i. p. 275 (1766); Sundev. Svensk 

 Fogl. pi. xxxiii. figs. 4-5 (1856). 



Tetrao betuUnus, Scop. Ann. i. p. 119, No. 172 (1769). 



Bonasia sylvestris, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 514 (1831); 

 EUiot, Monogr. Tetraon. pi. iv. (1865). 



