2 1 70 THE GAME BIRDS AND RAILS 



capercaillie hen is a bad mother, and seldom succeeds in rearing more than one or 

 two of her somewhat delicate young. The male is a remarkably wary bird, much 

 harder to obtain than the female, and it is astonishing, considering his large size 

 and weight, how quietly he can slip out of the far side of a pine tree without being 

 observed. The greater part of his time is spent among the branches of these trees, 

 the needles forming a considerable portion of his food, and giving the flesh a strong 

 flavor of turpentine. 



This group contains only two representatives, namely, the Canadian 

 me " Cc grouse or spruce partridge (Canachites canadensis) of Canada and the 



Northern States to the east of the Rocky mountains, and its near ally, 

 Franklin's grouse ( C. franklini) , inhabiting the coast ranges to the west of the 

 same chain. Both are about the size of a partridge, and have sixteen tail feathers; 

 the cocks pair with only one female, probably often retaining the same mate for 

 more than one season. The male Canadian grouse has the upper parts mostly gray 

 shading into sandy or rufous white on the wings, and barred and mottled with 

 black; while the throat, chest, and middle of the breast are black, the sides and 

 under parts being tipped with white, and the tail black tipped with chestnut. The 

 female has the general plumage barred and mottled with black and rufous yellow. 

 In both the male and female of Franklin's grouse this chestnut band across the 

 end of the tail is absent, and the upper tail coverts are tipped with white instead 

 of gray. 



The sharp-winged grouse {Falcipennis} of Northeastern Siberia and 

 ira Kamchatka may be recognized by having the outer flight feathers 

 narrowed toward the extremity and sickle shaped. The dusky grouse (Dendraga- 

 pus obscurus} and its two allies, of the pine forests to the east and west of the Rocky 

 mountains, have the tail with twenty feathers, and the males are provided with an 

 inflatable air sac on each side of the neck. The home of the dusky grouse is the 

 Southern Rocky mountains, from New Mexico to Idaho, its place further west being 

 taken by the sooty grouse (D. fuliginosus) , ranging along the Pacific coast from 

 California to Sitka; while, on the east side of the Rockies, Richardson's grouse (D. 

 richardsoni) is found from Central Montana northward. Much larger than the 

 Canadian grouse, the males of this species have the upper parts smoky black, 

 mottled with gray, and the under parts gray, while in the females the plumage of 

 the upper parts and breast is barred and mottled with buff. In both the dusky and 

 sooty grouse the tail is somewhat rounded in shape, with a terminal gray band 

 wider (more than an inch wide) in the former. In Richardson's grouse the gray 

 band is absent and the tail square. 



The males of the three species of prairie hen are characterized by an 

 elongate tuft of feathers, and an inflatable air sac on each side of the 

 neck, but in the females these tufts are less conspicuous and the air sacs absent. 

 The common prairie hen of the Mississippi valley ( Tympanuchus americanus) , 

 shown in the cut on p. 2171, has the plumage brown above, barred and marked 

 with buff and black, the longer feathers of the neck tufts being black, and the under 

 parts pale brown, barred and fringed with white. During the pairing season these 

 birds assemble in numbers in the morning on some high dry knoll, when the males 



