2o8 Bird Studies. 



are glossy black, with varied white markings. The sides are mottled with 

 black and grayish white. There is a broken band of black and white across 

 the upper breast, defining that area from the throat. 



The female is browner than the male in general appearance. There are 

 no defined black areas on the under parts, but the throat is barred with pale 

 reddish brown and black, and this gradually gives way on the breast to dusky 

 or black broken by the grayish tips of the feathers. The upper parts are 

 similar in pattern to those of the male, but everywhere browner. The tail is 

 much the same as in the male, but is mottled with reddish brown and tipped 

 with the same color more narrowly. The nest is placed on the ground in 

 the woods much as is that of the Ruffed Grouse, and the eggs are buffy, 

 specked with brown. They are an inch and seven tenths long and an inch 

 and a quarter in their other diameter. These birds are found east of the 

 Rocky Mountains in Northern North America, from Northern New England 

 and Minnesota northward. 



