TETRAONIDaE — THE GROUSE. 425 



comes quite attractive to the epicure. The love-notes of this bird are said 

 to be deep, soft, plaintive, but unmusical, and resemble the wliirring sounds 

 made by a rattan, swung rapidly and in jerks through the air. These notes 

 usually begin the first week in March. The young are able to fly feebly by 

 the first of July. By the last of August they have attained their full size. 

 In the winter they retire to the tops of the loftiest firs, where they pass 

 the season in an almost immovable state of hibernation. Between July and 

 winter they may be readily shot. Once raised, they invariably fly to trees. 

 They heed but little the report of a gun unless they have been wounded. 

 Their flesh is said to be midway between the color of the Pinnated 

 and the Euffed Grouse, partaking of their good qualities, but surpassing 

 either. 



The eggs of this species are oval in shape ; one end is a little more obtuse 

 than the other. The ground is of a pale cream-color, and is marked with 

 small rounded spots of reddish-brown. These are more numerous and larger 

 towards the larger end. They measure 1.95 inches in length and 1.45 in 

 breadth. 



Canace obscurus, var. fuliginosus, Eidgway. 



OBEGON DUSKY GBOUSE. 



f Tetrao ohscurus, Newberry, P. R. R. Rept. VI, iv, 1857, 93. — Coop. & Suckl. 219. — 

 Lord, Pr. R. A. Inst. IV, 122 (British Columbia). — Ball & Bannister, Trans. 

 Chicago Ac. I, 1869, 287 (Alaska). — Finsch, Ab. Nat. Ill, 1872, 61 (Alaska). 



Sp. Char. Beneath plain dark plumbeous, without whitish borders to the feathers 

 except on flanks and crissum ; whole head almost uniformly plain dusky-black. Tarsi 

 dark plumbeous. Wing, 9.50; tail, 7.50; tarsus, 1.75; middle toe, 1.80. 



Female (11,826, Chiloweyuck Depot, Washington Territory, Aug. 6, 1858; C. B. 

 Kennerly). Above black, broken by transverse mottlings of bright reddish-brown or 

 rufous ; these confused posteriorly, but in fofm of regular transverse bars anteriorly. 

 Below dusky-plumbeous, plain on abdomen, with sagittate spots on jugulum, and deltoid 

 ones on the flanks, etc., of reddish-white. Length, 20.00 ; wing, 8.50 ; tail, 6.30. 



Adult male (4,505, Cascade Mountains, Dr. Newberry). Above plain fuliginous-black, 

 the mottlings scarcely apparent. No .white markings on scapulars ; tail-band deep 

 plumbeous, only .60 wide, but well defined. 



Young (11,827, Chiloweyuck Depot). Similar to, but much more reddish than, young 

 of var. obscurus. ■ 



Hab. Northwest coast region, from Oregon to Sitka. 



A male (46,070, May, 1866 ; Bischoff ) from Sitka is much mottled with 

 bright reddish-rusty on the dorsal region, and washed with the same on the 

 forehead. (Tail-band .60 of an inch wide). A female (46,073, Sept., 1866) 

 from same locality is so strongly washed with dark, almost castaneous, ferru- 

 ginous as to appear mostly of this color above, this being very bright on 

 the crown and forehead. 



Habits. This race is the more northern and northwestern coast form of 

 VOL. III. 54 



