FAMILY TETRAONID^. 



This family contains the Quails, Partridges, and 

 Grouse, and has its representatives in nearly every por- 

 tion of the world. It has been subjected by different 

 ornithologists to varying treatment and has at times been 

 divided into many subfamilies, but three have always 

 seemed to me quite sufficient, two of which are repre- 

 sented in North America. The three are: Perdicince, 

 containing the Quails and Partridges of the Old World, 

 having no representative in the Western Hemisphere; 

 Odotitophorincc, the American Partridges, natives of the 

 New World unrepresented in the Old World; and Tetra- 

 onincCy the Grouse and Ptarmigan found in both Hemi- 

 spheres. 



They are all game birds, in the sense the sports- 

 man understands the term, and wherever their habitat 

 may be, whether the elevated plateaus or gloomy defiles 

 of high mountain ranges, or the plains and prairies of 

 level lands, or the forests and thickets of the more 

 attractive portions of the earth, the members of this 

 family always exhibit the peculiar qualities found so emi- 

 nently among gallinaceous birds, and afford the sport 

 that so endears them to the hunter's heart. 



The New World possesses some of the largest and 

 finest species of the family, many of which at one time 

 were found within its limits in extraordinary abundance, 

 and although they now exist in lessened numbers, and 

 many districts in which they formerly abounded will 

 know them no more forever, yet with proper laws, 

 rightly enforced, a remnant may be saved for succeeding 

 generations. 



