CATALOGUE OF VERTEBRATES. 585 



September. Two broods frequently associate and as a ' covey ' 

 remain in the neighborhood of the nests the greater part of the 

 fail, unless driven off and thinned out by the gunners. Severe 

 winters are very destructive to quails, and deep snows have done 

 much probably towards ' thinning them out.' " 



BONASA, Steph. 

 B. umbellUB, L. Ruffed Grouse. Partridge (North). Pheasant (South). 

 Tarsus feathered half way ; tail of eighteen soft, broad feath- 

 ers ; head crested ; sides of neck with ruflF of dark feathers 

 (smaller in female) ; plumage variegated, reddish or grayish 

 brown, with blackish and pale. Length, 18 inches; tail, 7 

 inches. 



" Resident. Gradually being exterminated. The pheasant is 

 probably most abundant in Monmouth and Ocean counties, but 

 the law protecting them being totally disregarded, they are not 

 numerous in those localities. The grouse pair off in May, and 

 raise one brood, which are weak on the wing in August, but 

 nevertheless are eagerly pursued by pot-hunters. Numbers from 

 other localities have occasionally been * planted ' in New Jersey, 

 but certain gentlemen (?) who have no idea beyond their bellies, 

 frustrate these attempts to stock the State, by ' out of time ' 

 shooting."— [C. C. A.] 



TYMPANUCHOS, Glog. 



(Cupidonia, Reich.) 

 T. cupido, L. Prairie Hen, or Chicken ; more properly, Heath Hen.* 

 Scapulars with large terminal spots of buffy white (no such 

 spots in T. americanus) ; neck tufts of male sharply pointed, 

 lanceolate (rounded in americanus) ; beneath neck tufts a patch 

 of bare red skin, capable of great inflation ; plumage black, 

 tawny and white, barred and streaked ; female smaller, with 

 rudimentary neck tufts. Length, 17 inches; tail, 4 inches. 

 Now left only on Martha's Vineyard, where it is in danger of 

 extermination. Formerly abundant along Atlantic coast.; — 

 Ridgway. 



"A few only remain in Monmouth county and in Ocean 



* The true prairie chicken is T. americanus, and does not range east of Indiana. 



