TETRAONID^ — THE GROUSE. 427 



Indians near Puget Sound. In winter they were so rarely seen west of the 

 mountains that they are believed to keep entirely in the trees. In October, 

 1853, he saw a flock running through the snow near the Spokane Plains, 

 one of which was shot ; but he never afterwards met with any in the 

 winter. 



Mr. J. K. Lord found this Grouse almost exclusively on the western side 

 of the Rocky Mountains. It aj)peared at Vancouver, at Nisqually, and 

 along the banks of the Fraser Eiver, about the end of March, the male bird 

 announcing his coming by a kind of love-song. This is a booming noise, 

 repeated at short intervals, and so deceptive that j\Ir. Lord has often stood 

 under the tree where the bird was perched and imagined the sound came 

 from a distance. 



Mr. Nuttall found this Grouse breeding in the shady forests of the region 

 of the Columbia, wliere he saw or heard them throughout the summer. He 

 describes the tooting made by the male as resembling the sound caused by 

 blowing into the bung-hole of a barrel. They breed on the ground, and are 

 said to keep the brood together all winter. 



Townsend describes the eggs as numerous, of a cinereous-brown color, blunt 

 at both ends, and small for the bird. The actions of the female, when the 

 young are following her, are said to be exactly similar to those of the Euffed 

 Grouse, employing all the artifices of that bird in feigning lameness, etc., to 

 draw off intruders. 



Canace obscurus, var. richardsoni, Douglas. 



RICHARDSON'S DUSKY GROUSE. 



Tetrao obseurus, Avd. Oin. Biog. IV, 1S38, 446, pi. ccclxv. — Is. Syn. 1839, 283. — Ib. 

 B. Am. I, 1842, 89. — Nutt. Orn. I, 1840, 609. — Swains. F. B. A. II, 1831, 344, pi. 

 lix, Ix. Tctrao richardsoni, Dougl. Linn. Trans. XVI, 141. — Lord, Pr. E. A. I. 

 IV, 122 (between Cascade and Rocky Mountains). —Gray, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. V, 1867, 

 86. Dendraga2ms richardsoni, Elliot, P. A. N. S. 1864, 23. — Ib. Monog. Tetraon. 

 pl. — Wilson, lUust. 1831, pl. xxx, xxxi. 



Sp. Char. Tail-feathers broad and nearly truncated ; tail almost perfectly square, and 

 black to the tip, with the terminal band either only faintly indicated or entirely wanting ; 

 in all other respects exactly like var. obscurus. Male (18,397, Browns Cut off. N. 

 Rocky Mountains; Lieutenant Mullan). Length, about 20.00; wing, 9.00; tail, 7.30; 

 tarsus, 1.70; middle toe, 1.85. Female (18,398, forty miles west of Fort Benton; 

 Lieutenant Mullan). Wing, 8.60; tail, G.OO; tarsus, 1.60; middle toe, 1.60. 



Hab. Eocky Mountains of British America, south to the Yellowstone and Hellgate 

 region of the United States- 



'No. 18,377, Hellgate, and others from localities where this form and var. 

 obscurus approach each other, have the terminal zone of the tail of the usual 

 width, and even sharply defined ; but it is so dark as to be scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable from the ground-color. 



