ZOOLOGY. 219 



more and more bluish to the innermost, which is brown. Seen from above there is the same gradation from white to light 

 blue in the tips; the rest of the feather, however, is blue, with a bar of black anterior to the light tip, which runs a little 

 forward along the margin and shaft of the feather. In the sixth feather the color is uniform bluish, with this bar; the 

 seventh is without bars. Bill black; feet yellow. Female smaller, with less red beneath. Length of male, 12.50 to 12.85; 

 extent, 17 25 to 18; wing, 5.75; tail, 6 70. 

 Hob. — Throughout the United States, from Atlantic to Pacific; Cuba, Gundlach. 



The Carolina dove is common about prairies and farms of the interior, and probably some 

 remain all winter in the Territory, though none were at Vancouver in the snowy winter of 

 1853. They rarely appear along the coast border, but doubtless extend east to the Rocky 

 mountains. — C. 



Very abundant throughout both Territories. At Fort Steilacoom this species arrives and 

 departs at about the same time as the Golumha fasciata. During my residence there I obtained 

 many specimens for comparison with eastern birds. 



Note. — I noticed a small dove in the Simcoe valley, near the Yakima river, Washington 

 Territory, in June, 1855. It appeared smaller and much darker than this species, being of a 

 dark blue. I was, unfortunately, unable to obtain a specimen for preservation. — -S. 



Family TETR AO NID AE.— The Grouse. 

 TETRAO OBS GURUS, Say. 



Dusky Grouse; Blue Grouse; Fine Grouse. 



Telrao obscurus, Sat, Long's E.-sped. R. Mts. II, 1823, 14.— Bon. Syn. 1828, 127.— Sw. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831,344; pi. 

 lix, Ix.— NuTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 66G.— Ann. Cm. Biog. IV, 1838, 446; pi. 361.— 1b. Syn, 1839, 

 283.— Ib. Birds Amer. 1, 1842,89; pi. 295.— Baird, Gen. Rep. p. 620.— Newberry, Rep. P. 

 R. R. Surv. VI, IV, 1857, 93. 



Canace obscura, Bonap. Comptes Rendus, XLV, 1857, 428. 



Tttrao richardsonii, Douglas, Trans. Linn. Soc. XVI, 1829, 141. 



Sp. Ch. — Sexes dissimilar. Tail of twenty feathers. Above bluish black; plumbeous or black beneath. Tail uniform black, 

 and finely and obscurely mottled above. Tail broadly tipped with light slate. Beneath uniform plumbeous. A dusky half 

 collar on the throat. The chin and throat above white, varied with black. Tail about two-thirds the length of the wings, 

 broad, rounded, composed of twenty broad, even, and truncated feathers. Tarsi feathered to the toes, the feathers extending 

 along the sides of the basal half of the first joints of the toes. Pectinations on the sides of the toes very short. Length, 

 20.40; wing, 9.40; tail, 7.45. 



Hab. — Black Hills of Nebraska to Cascade mountains of Oregon and Washington. 



The dusky or "blue grouse," as it is called in the western country, is common in most of the 

 forests of the Territory, though rarer in the dense spruce forests near the coast. As it rarely 

 appears on the open prairie, it is difficult to start, and still more so to find, if, as usual, it alights 

 on a tree. So perfectly motionless does it sit, that though one may be looking straight at it 

 he will probably mistake it for a knot or a bunch of leaves. I have often searched carefully 

 every branch, and after concluding that the bird was not there, and starting to go, had the 

 satisfaction of seeing it sail off from the very same tree towards some distant part of the forest. 

 During May, near the coast, and until August, on the mountains, the low tooting of this grouse 

 is heard everywhere, sounding something like the cooing of a pigeon, and in the same deep tone 

 as the drumming of the rufled grouse. It has the power of ventriloquism, so that while the 

 bird may be sitting in a tree overhead the sound seems to come from places quite distant. I 

 have not seen the nest or eggs, but in June flocks of half-grown young are murdered by the 

 Indians near Puget Sound. In winter they are so rarely seen west of the mountains that the 



