138 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
the dusky grouse, and is seen to a greater or less extent 
in other members of the family, as the ruffed, pinnated 
and sharp-tailed grouse. 
Franklin’s grouse is commonly found in the summer 
in timbered valleys, often close to the water, but some- 
times ‘also on timbered plateaus much higher in the 
mountains. I have not observed that it seems especially 
to prefer swampy lands, as the Canada grouse is sup- 
posed to, but rather a thickly timbered country, not far 
from water. 
Even if alarmed and forced to take to wing, they do 
nothing more than fly up into the branches of the tree 
immediately above them, where they always either 
huddle down on a branch, as if to rest again, or, if 
seriously frightened, stand with head erect, stretching 
the neck out, first in one direction and then in another, 
until the cause of alarm has passed, or their suspicion 
has become allayed. 
Contrary to what might be expected, the spruce 
partridge, found in west central Alaska, is not 
Franklin’s grouse, but a form of the Canada grouse. 
