GROUSE : Family Tetraonidae [ iJ 3 ] 



Patterson took eggs of Blue Grouse in the area of intergradation on 

 May 10, 1931, in southern Klamath and Jackson Counties. 



Franklin's Grouse: 



Canachites franklini (Douglas) 



DESCRIPTION. "Similar to Dendragapus , but tail with sixteen feathers, which are 

 more truncated at tip. Adult male: orange comb over eye; upper parts dark, broadly 

 marked with black bands and narrower bars of gray and brown; tail feathers black 

 to tip, or narrowly edged with white; upper tail coverts mottled and strikingly banded 

 ivitb white; throat and chest black, with white band between; belly banded with 

 white; flanks mottled and banded with brown and streaked with white. Adult 

 female: upper parts blackish, irregularly banded, barred, and mottled with rusty 

 brown and ash; white bands of tail narrower than in male; under parts uniformly 

 banded with black, white, and rusty brown." (Bailey) Downy young: "The Frank- 

 lin's Grouse chick is beautifully colored. The central crown patch, which is bor- 

 dered with black, and the upper parts in general are rich brown, from 'Sanford's 

 brown' to 'amber brown'; the colors of the forehead, sides of the head, and under 

 parts vary from 'mustard yellow' to 'Naples yellow,' deepest and tinged with 

 brownish on the forehead and flanks, and palest on the sides of the head and belly; 

 there are black spots below the eyes, on the lores and auriculars, on the lower fore- 

 head, and on the rump; and there is a black ring around the neck." (Bent) Si%e: 

 "Length I4.7o-i6.zo, wing about 6.50-7.35, tail 5.00-5.75." (Bailey) Nest: A 

 depression in the ground, lined with pine needles, grass, and other dry matter. 

 Eggs: Buff to pale brown, spotted with small spots of dark brown. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Southeastern Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington, 

 Cascades east and south to Alberta, western Montana, central Idaho, and north- 

 eastern Oregon. In Oregon: Known only as rare and local resident in a few spots in 

 Wallowa Mountains, mostly in Wallowa County, with a few in extreme northern 

 Baker County. 



THE BEAUTIFULLY marked Franklin's Grouse is Oregon's rarest and most 

 local species of upland game bird, being found only in a few very restricted 

 spots in eastern Wallowa County and northeastern Baker County in the 

 lodgepole pine forests adjacent to and on the slopes of the highest part 

 of the Wallowa Range. There is a single specimen in the Biological 

 Survey collection taken at the junction of Cliff and Imnaha Rivers, Sep- 

 tember 9, 1915, by Jewett, and there are specimens in our collections 

 from the same general territory. The birds are occasionally seen in this 

 vicinity about Lick Creek Ranger Station and on the ridge between the 

 Imnaha and Snake Canyons but can by no means be considered common 

 We know of no actual nesting records, although various rangers at Lick 

 Creek Ranger Station have reported coveys of partly grown young. So 

 far as we can learn, there are no specimens in existence from Oregon 

 taken outside the territory indicated above, although this grouse has been 

 credited occasionally to the Oregon Cascades, particularly about Mount 

 Hood. The Mount Hood records should be eliminated, however, as we 

 have found no definite records of the species from the parts of this range 



