586 THE CANADIAN RUFFED GROUSE, 
clenched fists. Others affirmed that the ictus was made by the contact of 
wings as they met over the back. Bendire says: “It is generally conceded 
now by most naturalists, including such well-known ornithologists as Brewster, 
Merriam and Henshaw, that the sound is produced by the outspread wings 
of the bird being suddenly brought downward against the air, without striking 
anything.” 
Another noisy surprise is in store for the person who comes upon a 
mother Partridge with a brood of tender chicks. With a great outery the 
mother bird charges up in front of the intruder, or dashes into his face; then 
stands before him with 
flashing eyes and ruffled 
feathers looking fierce 
enough to eat him up. 
Thus she holds the enemy 
at bay for one bewildering 
moment,—a precious mo- 
ment, in which her tiny 
darlings are finding shelter. 
Then she collapses like a 
struck tent and vanishes in 
a trice. A diligent search 
may discover a chick under 
a fallen leaf, or between 
two pieces of bark, but no 
living man can find an en- 
tire brood in this way. 
The Canadian Ruffed 
Grouse, or “Gray-tail,”’ is 
of northern stock, well dis- 
tributed thru the timbered 
foothills and mountain val- 
leys of eastern Washing- 
ton. It intergrades with 
the following form thruout the higher valleys of the western slopes of the 
Taken near Spokane Photo by F. S. Merri 
ON THE ALERT 
CANADIAN RUFFED GROUSE (BACKGROUND PAINTED OUT) 
Cascades, and occasionally ventures to the very coast, especially northerly. 
Intermediate plumages are not rare, but specimens from any locality of the 
borderland are usually definitely referable to one form or the other. Thus 
of eleven specimens taken by Mr. Brown near Mt. Baker five were “grays,” 
that is, Canadians, and five “reds,” or Oregons, with one intermediate 
These differences of plumage are so marked that it is easy to name the birds 
as they rise. 
