RUFFED GROUSE. 265 



the scapulars deeply tinged with pale purple, and marked with detached 

 drops of glossy blue, reflecting tints of purple ; belly pale vinaceous 

 brown, becoming dark cinereous towards the vent, where the feathers 

 are bordered with white ; wing quills dusky outwardly and at the tips ; 

 lower sides, and whole interior vanes, a fine red chestnut, which shows 

 itself a little below their coverts ; tail rounded, consisting of twelve 

 feathers, the two middle ones cinereous brown, the rest black, tipped and 

 edged with white ; legs and feet yellow. 



The female has the back and tail coverts of a mouse color, with little 

 or none of the vinaceous tint on the breast and throat, nor any of the 

 light blue on the hind head ; the throat is speckled with dull white, pale 

 clay color, and dusky ; sides of the neck the same, the plumage strongly 

 defined ; breast cinereous brown, slightly tinctured with purple ; sca- 

 pulars marked with large drops of a dark purplish blood color, reflecting 

 tints of blue ; rest of the plumage nearly the same as that of the male. 



Genus LVI. TETRAO. 



Species I. T. VMBELLUS. 



RUFFED GROUSE. 



[Plate XLIX.J 



Arct. Zool. p. 301, No. 179. — Ruffed Heath-cock, or Grouse, Edw. 248. — La Gelinote 

 hupp^e de Pennsi/lvanie, Briss. i., 2H.—PI. Eiil. 104. — Buff, ii., 281.— Phil. 

 Trans. 62, 393.— Turt. S>/st. 454. 



This is the Partridge of the Eastern States, and the Pheasant of 

 Pennsylvania, and the southern districts. It is represented in the plate 

 of its full size ; and was faithfully copied from a perfect and very beau- 

 tiful specimen. 



This elegant species is well known in almost every quarter of the 

 United States, and appears to inhabit a very extensive range of country. 

 It is common at Moose Fort, on Hudson's Bay, in lat. 51° ; is frequent 

 in the upper parts of Georgia ; very abundant in Kentucky and the 

 Indiana territory ; and was found by Captains Lewis and Clarke in 

 crossing the great range of mountains that divide the waters of the 

 Columbia and Missouri, more than three thousand miles, by their mea- 

 surement, from the mouth of the latter. Its favorite places of resort 

 are high mountains, covered with the balsam pine, hemlock, and such 

 like evergreens. Unlike the Pinnated Grouse, it always prefers the 

 woods ; is seldom or never found in open plains ; but loves the pine- 



