GRAY RUFFED GROUSE. 
NOTHER subspecies of the Ruffed Grouse is the 
present bird, which dwells in the central Rocky 
Mountain region, from the valley of the Yukon in 
Alaska, through British Columbia, and Idaho, Montana, 
and western Dakota south to Colorado. It possesses 
a plumage of a gray color, and is somewhat smaller 
than its relatives. Like the other Ruffed Grouse it is 
not migratory, and where it is found there it resides and 
breeds. It is fond of resorting to dense thickets and 
undergrowth that flourishes so luxuriantly along the 
mountain sides, and on the banks of streams, ascending 
at times to the loftiest heights, having been met with 
at 10,000 feet of elevation. Its habits are similar to those 
of its relatives, and the nest and eggs resemble those of 
the species already described. 
It differs from the other Grouse of the Eastern portion 
of the United States and Canada by the uniform gray of 
the ground-color of its plumage and by its gray tail. 
When writing my monograph of the Grouse I thought 
that a good character consisted in the fact that the termi- 
nal black bar on the tail did not include the middle 
feathers, but the presence of more abundant material 
than was then obtainable proves that this supposition 
was not well founded. At best it is only a race of very 
questionable value. This bird was found abundant in 
the vicinity of Behring Straits at the head of Norton 
Sound wherever the woods occurred. It is common at 
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