THE CANADA GROUSE. 379 
scapulars, and outer surface of the wings are mottled like the back, but more irregu- 
larly, and with a browner shade of gray, the feathers with a central white streak 
expanding towards the tip (on the wing these streaks seen only on some of the 
greater coverts); there is no white above, except as described; the under parts 
are mostly uniform black, the feathers of the sides of the belly and breast broadly 
tipped with white, which sometimes forms a pectoral band; there is a white bar 
across the feathers, at the base of the upper mandible, usually interrupted above; 
a white spot on the lower eyelid, and a white line beginning on the cheeks, and 
running into a series of white spots in the feathers of the throat; the lower feathers 
of this are banded terminally with whitish; the feathers at the base of the bill, 
and the head, below the eyes and beneath, are pure-black; the quills are dark- 
brown, without any spots or bands, the outer edges only mottled with grayish; the 
tail feathers are similar, but darker, and the tail is tipped with a band of orange- 
chestnut, nearly half an inch wide, obscured on the central feathers, the under 
tail coverts are black, broadly barred and tipped with white; the feathers of the legs 
mottled-brown and whitish; dirty-white behind the tarsi; the bill is black. 
The female is smaller but somewhat similar, the black bars above broader, the 
inner gray bars of each feather, including the tail, replaced by broader ones of 
brownish-orange; the under parts have the feathers black, barred with the brownish- 
orange, which, on the tips of the belly feathers, is pure-white; the clear continuous 
black of the head and breast are wanting; the scapulars, greater coverts, and sides. 
are streaked as in the male. 
Length, sixteen and twenty one-hundredths inches; wing, six and seventy one- 
hundredths; tail, five and forty-four hundredths inches. 
T is only in the most retired and unsettled localities in 
northern New England that this very beautiful grouse is 
found. There, in the spruce and pine woods and swamps, 
it is not uncommon as a resident through the year. I have 
shot specimens in the White Mountains, between what is 
called Waterville, a hamlet in Thornton, N.H., and Bethle- 
hem, in the same State; but they are more commonly found 
in the localities above mentioned. In its native haunts, it 
is very unsuspicious, permitting a person to walk within a 
few feet of it without stirring ; and, when it does take flight, 
it goes but a few rods, when it alights on a tree, and turns 
to watch the intruder. 
It is a very graceful bird on the ground, moving with a 
stately step over the long elastic moss so abundant-in the 
woods of Maine. 
It feeds upon the buds of the evergreens, and their seeds 
and foliage. This food imparts to the flesh of the bird a 
disagreeable resinous flavor, particularly in fall and winter, 
