GROUSE AND PTARMIGAN 



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are provided with aftershafts, and the young are born covered with down, or well 

 feathered in the case of the megapodes, and able to run coon after they are hatched. 

 The nesting habits vary, the grouse, partridges, and pheasants habitually laying 

 their eggs on the ground with little or no nest, while the curassows generally build 

 in trees, and the megapodes place their eggs among sand and vegetable remains, 

 where they are hatched by the warmth of the decaying matter and the heat of the 

 sun. In the true game birds the eggs, if spotted at all, are only marked with sur- 

 face spots, which are easily scratched off, and never possess the deep, underlying 

 marks characteristic of the eggs of the sand grouse and rails. 



PTARMIGAN IN WINTER DRESS. 



(One-third natural size.) 



GROUSE AND PTARMIGAN 

 Family TETRAONID^ 



The grouse form a group of about thirty species, in which the feathering of 

 the legs and feet varies in the different genera; the ptarmigan and its allies having 

 the legs and feet entirely covered with feathers, while in others, such as the black - 

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