146 The Grouse Family 



THE GRAY RUFFED GROUSE 

 (^B. n. umbelloides) 



In the Rocky Mountain region, from Colorado, 

 through western Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and 

 British Columbia, to the Yukon valley in Alaska, 

 is found this subspecies of the ruffed grouse. It 

 may readily be distinguished from B. iwibelhis 

 by its smaller size and the pronounced grayness 

 of the ground color of the plumage. While it 

 appears to prefer the dense cover of the banks of 

 streams and slight elevations, it has been taken 

 far up the sides of the loftiest peaks — as high as 

 nine or ten thousand feet. Its favorite food is the 

 buds of the spruce, which impart to the flesh a 

 flavor which might appeal to the palate of an 

 eastern spruce gum chewer, but which signally 

 fails to hold the appreciative attention of an 

 epicure, unless he also happens to be a lost 

 prospector keen for a " grub-stake." The average 

 length of this bird is about 14J inches; wing 7J; 

 tail, 6. 



I have never shot this bird. The few specimens 

 which I have seen and handled in the flesh were 

 brought aboard the tug upon which, with friends 

 interested in timber, I penetrated some of the 

 fiord-like sections of the northern coast of British 

 Columbia. 



