io8 The Grouse Family 



son's ptarmigan, L. r. 7ielsoni ; Turner's ptarmigan, L. r. 

 atkcnsis ; Townsend's ptarmigan, L. r. townsendi; Evermann's 

 ptarmigan, L. evennaitni ; and the white-tailed ptarmigan, L. 

 leiiciirus. 



THE RUFFED GROUSE 

 {Bo7tasa uinbellus) 



Adult male — Upper parts varied with yellowish brown and gray, 

 barred on head, neck, and upper part of back and wings, with 

 black and rufous ; lower part of back and rump, gray, inter- 

 spersed with dark red, and ovate spots of pale buff, surrounded 

 with black ; scapulars and wing-coverts conspicuously streaked 

 with buffy white ; primaries, grayish brown, outer webs barred with 

 creamy white ; upper tail-coverts, gray, mottled and barred with 

 black ; on sides of neck, tufts of broad, lengthened feathers, 

 black, tipped with light brown and shot with metallic lustre ; 

 throat, buff, faintly barred with brown ; lower parts, buff on 

 chest, shading to white below, barred with brown ; under tail- 

 coverts, buff, barred with dark brown and with a V-shaped 

 white mark at tip ; tail, gray, or yellowish brown ; sometimes 

 rusty, mottled with black and crossed by irregular bufT bands, 

 bordered above by black, and a broad, subterminal black band 

 bordered above and below with gray, mottled with black, the 

 upper gray bar bordered above with a narrow black bar ; legs, 

 feathered to middle of tarsus ; maxilla, black ; mandible, horn 

 color. Total length, about i6 inches; wing, 7I ; tail, 6|. 



The female closely resembles the male, but is a trifle smaller and 

 has the neck-tufts smaller — frequently is without them. The 

 downy young have the upper parts chestnut, a black line from 

 back of eye, across ear-coverts ; under parts, light buff. Range 

 — eastern United States and southern Canada, from Massachu- 

 setts to northern Georgia, Mississippi, and Arkansas, westward 

 to the Dakotas. 



While a stanch supporter of Bob-white's claim 

 to the premier position among upland game, the 

 writer pleads guilty to a genuine love for the 



