TETRAONID®, GROUSE, PARTRIDGES. —GEN. 182, 183. 235 
182. Genus BONASA Stephens. 
Ruffed Grouse. Partridge; New England and Middle States. Pheasant ; 
Southern States. Sides of the neck with a tuft of numerous (15-30), 
broad, soft, glossy-black feathers ; head with a full soft crest ; tail about as 
long as the wings, amply rounded, of (normally) eighteen soft broad 
feathers ; tarsi naked below. Length 
16-18; wing 7-8. Sexes nearly 
alike; variegated reddish- or gray- 
ish-brown, the back with numerous, ‘ 
oblong, pale, black-edged spots; 
below, whitish barred with brown; £— 
tail with a broad subterminal black 
zone, and tipped with gray. A 
woodland bird, like the species of 
Tetrao, abundantly distributed over 
Eastern North America, well known 
under the above names in different sections; but it is neither a partridge nor 
a pheasant. The “drumming” sound for which this bird is noted, is not 
vocal, as some suppose, but is produced by rapidly beating the wings 
together, or against some hard object, as a fallen log. Wus., vi, 46, pl. 
FUSE NULT., 1, 00%; AUD., Vv, pl. 293, (2; Bp., 630: . . . UMBELLUS. 
Var. umMBeLtLorpes. Pale; slaty-gray the prevailing shade. Rocky Mountain 
region. Dovexas, Linn. Trans. xvi, 1829, 148; Bp., 925. 
_ Var. sABineri. Dark; chestnut-brown the prevailing shade. Pacific Coast 
region. Doveuras, ibid. 1387; Bp., 631; Coor., 540. 
Fic. 149. Ruffed Grouse. 
*183. Genus LAGOPUS Vieillot. 
*.* No peculiar feathers on neck; tarsi and toes densely feathered ; tail short, 
little rounded, normally-of 14 broad feathers, with long upper coverts, some of 
which resemble rectrices. Boreal and alpine grouse, shaped nearly as in Canace, 
remarkable for the seasonal changes of plumage, becoming in winter snow-white. 
There are only five or six species, at most, and probably fewer; we certainly 
have the three here given: 
Willow Ptarmigan. Tail black; no black stripe on head; bill very 
stout, culmen 3, or more, its depth at base as much as the distance from 
nasal fossa to.tip. In summer, the fore parts rich chestnut or orange-brown, 
; variegated with blackish, the upper parts and sides barred with blackish, 
tawny and white; most other parts white. 15-17; wing 8; tail 5. British 
America, into northernmost U.S. Nurr., i, 674; Aup., v, 114, pl. 299; 
Bp., 633. JZ. salceti Sw. and Ricu., Fn. Bor.-Am. ii, 351. . . ALBUS. 
Lock Ptarmigan. Tail black; g with a black transocular stripe; bill 
slenderer, culmen about 3, deptlrat base less than distance from nasal fossa 
to tip. In summer, the general plumage irregularly banded with black, 
reddish-yellow, and white. Rather smaller than the foregoing. Arctic 
a 
