THREE FAMOUS GAME BIRDS 355 



Bob White 



Length ten inches. 



Upper parts mixed reddish-brown, buff, gray, and black, with 

 a white line over the eye and a row of buff streaks on the inside 

 wing-feathers. 



Under parts white, black, and chestnut, the breast quite black 

 and the throat pure white in the male, but buff in the female, and 

 other markings much mixed up. 



A Citizen of the greater part of temperate North America, and 

 a very valuable one, the prince of the game birds of its family. 

 The bill is stout for crushing seeds, the head has a slight crest, and 

 the feet have no feathers on the scaly part that goes from the 

 drumstick down to the roots of the toes. 



The Ruffed Grouse 



Length about seventeen inches. 



Upper parts mottled with reddish-brown, black, gray, buff, and 

 whitish, in different blended patterns ; on each side of the neck 

 a tuft of long glossy greenish-black feathers in the male, much 

 shorter and not so dark in the female; the tail in both sexes gray 

 or brownish with black bars or mottling, especially one broad bar 

 near the end, and gray tip of the feathers. 



Lower parts light buff or whitish with many dark-brown or 

 blackish bars, best marked on the sides. 



A Citizen of eastern North America, and a valuable game bird. 

 It lives on the ground and looks like a small Hen, but has a longer 

 and handsomer tail that spreads round like a fan. The bill is 

 stout and the head crested, like the Bob White's; but the feet have 

 little feathers part way down from the drumstick to the toes. 



The Ruffed Grouse, like the Bob White, belongs to the Birds 

 that Scratch. 



The American Woodcock 



Length ten to twelve inches — female larger than male. 



Upper parts variegated with brown, tawny, and black. 



Under parts plain warm brown. 



A Summer Citizen of eastern North America, wintering in south- 

 ern parts of its range, and a famous game bird. A ground bird 

 of marshy w^oods and near-by fields, though he belongs to the same 



