56 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



be kept in tiie same pen, but in July the}- may be all turned together again, 

 and tliey will agree very well until the following March."' 



The Canada Grouse breed.s early. Eggs now in the U. S. National 

 Mu.seuni collection have been taken by Mr. B. R. Ross, of the Hudson Bay 

 Comi)anv, near Fort Simpson, British North America, north of latitude ()2°, as 

 early as May 23. But a single brood is raised in a season. The number of 

 eggs to a set varies from nine to thirteen, rarely more, usually about eleven, 

 and in exceptional cases as many as sixteen. An egg is deposited every other 

 day, and incubation does not begin till the clutch is completed. In form the 

 eg-o-s vary from ovate to elong-ate ovate. Their jifround color, which is only 

 superficial, is also very variable, ranging fromi a pale creamy ])utf to a decided 

 reddish buff or pale cinnamon, and again to brciwnish buff with intermediate 

 shades. The eggs are irregularly spotted and bloiched with reddish brown or 

 burnt umber. The si)ots vary considerably in size and shape, but are never 

 close enough together to hide the gTound color. An occasional specimen is hut 

 very slightly marked, and now and then one may be entirely unspotted. 



The average measurement of fifty specimens in the IJ. S. National Museum 

 collection is 43.5 by 31.5 millimetres, the largest egg measuring 48 by 33, 

 the smallest 41 by 31 millimetres. 



Of the type specimens selected to show the variations in color and mark- 

 ings. No. 22367 (PI. 1, Fig. 20), was taken near Whale River, Ungava Bay, 

 June 3, 1883; Nos. 22398 and 22399 (PI. 1, Figs. 21 and 22), near Fort 

 Chimo, Northeast Territory, Dominion of Canada, both on July 1, 1884. 



These eggs were all collected by Mr. L. M. Turner while on dutv as United 

 States signal observer at Fort Chimo, and No. 24024 (PI. 1, Fig. 23), is from a 

 set of thirteen, laid in confinement in the spring of 1890, and purchased from Mr. 

 W. L. Bishop, Kent\alle, Nova Scotia. The set from which this specimen is 

 selected is mucli richer colored than any of the eggs taken from these birds in 

 a wild state, and may be partly caused by the food they received in captivity. 



ig. Dendragapus franklinii (Douglas), 

 franklin's grouse. 



Tpfmo fmnMinii Douglas, Transactions Linufean Society, xvi, ili, 1829, 1.39. 

 Dendragapus frunklliiii Ridgway, Proceedings U. S. National Museum, vill, 1885,355. 



(B 461, C 380a, R i72a, C 550, U 299.) 



Geographical range : Northern Rocky Mountains (chiefly north of the United 

 State.s) and west to the Coast ranges. 



The breeding range of Franklin's Grouse, which .still remains one of the 

 rarest birds in the ornithological collections of the United States, extends from 

 about latitude 60°, in southern Alaska, but along the coast only, south through 

 British Columbia and Washington, to nortliern Oregon, where it reaches its 



' Forest and Stream, May 29, 1890, p. 367. 



