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259 



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were to experience thirst at the same time, both delay and 

 difficulty would occur in quenching it, since, owing to the 

 general scarcity of water in the districts inhabited by these 

 birds, hundreds of the same species, even as it is at present, 

 are often to be seen fringing the brink of a pool for hours 

 together, and occasionally disputing for the first sip. Dr. 

 Smith found grass-seeds, ants, and abundance of gravel in 

 the stomachs of most of the individuals which he procured. 

 The female lays two or three eargs, which are nearly of the 

 same size at each end, of a dirty-white or cream-colour, 

 marked with irregular streaks and blotches of pale rusty 

 and pale grey or ash-colour, upon the bare ground, without 

 any care, once or oftener during the warm season ; and it 

 is only when level spots fitted for the reception of the eggs 

 cannot be readily obtained, that the birds of this genus, 

 according to Dr. Smith, bestow any labour on the prepara- 

 tion of nestling-places. Nothing, he adds, is ever inter- 

 posed between the eirss and the soil ; and indeed whatever 

 is calculated to separate them is carefully avoided. Almost 

 as soon as the young escape from the shell, they take to a 

 wandering life, and remove from place to place with the 

 parent-birds in search of food. (Illustrations of the Zoo- 

 Ingy iif South .{/. 



AMERICAN GROVSK. 



America possesses several species of grouse, consist- 

 ing of the genera and subirenera Boiiusia, or Bonasa, 

 ntrao, I.":: />*, and Cenlrocercus. We have already 

 noticed the Ku/l'ed Uriiutr [UONASIA], and here select for 

 example Centr-jeerm* /-o/</i,/.s/o//u.y. 



l>f-ri]>ii<>H. .}f<ile. General ground-colour of upper 

 plumage light hair-brown, mottled and variegated with 

 dark umber-brown and yellowish-white. Each feather of 

 the back with three bands of yellowish-white at equal dis- 

 tances from each other, the lowest narrow, the middle one 

 broad, and the outer one at the tip of the feather almost 

 k'te : between thcsr the colour is hair-brown, prettily 

 marked with small ineguli'i /i^va^s of light hair-brown: 

 these colours cross the. .ilmt't ; but on the wing-covrrs and 

 scapulars the shafts are all marked by a namiw conspi- 

 cuous line of yellowish-white. On the tail there are about 

 eight bands of this colour, the lower onus being tolerably 

 defined, but those towards the ends obscure : the uiamn;-- 

 aie zigzairged, and bordered by dark umber-brown, with 

 irregular zigzag Hues ot' the same, upon a light hair-brown 

 ground, between each bar. (Quills light, and almost un- 

 spotted; narrowed r\Uv;mties of the tail ahnoit Mack. 

 Under plumage white, unspotted on 1he brea-t and part of 

 the body; but dark umber-brown, approaching to black, 

 on the lower half of the body and part of the flanks ; the 

 latter, towaid.s the vent, marked as on the upper plumage. 

 1'nder tail-coverts black, broadly tipped with white. 

 Feathers of the thighs and tarsi light hair-brown, mottled 

 with darker lines. Throat and region of the head varied 

 with blackrsh on a white ground. Shafts of all the feathers 

 on the breast black, rigid, and looking like hairs ; scale- 

 like feathers of the sides white and thicker. Bill, which 

 is thick and strong, and toes blackish. On each side of 

 the breast two prominent naked protuberances, destitute 

 of hair and feathers, more forward than the analogous parts 

 in Tvtnto (,'it/iii/n. On each side ot'the protuberances and 

 higher up on the neck, a tuft of feathers, having their 

 a considerably elongated and naked, gently curved and 

 tipped with a pencil of a few black radii. These tufts 

 occur at the same part as those of the Rutted Grouse, but 

 are placed much In hind the naked protuberances in the 

 specimen from which the description was taken,* so that 

 they do not appear intended to cover them when not in- 

 flated. On the sides of the neck and across the breast, 

 below the protuberances, the feathers are very short, rigid. 

 and acute, overlying each other like the scales of a lish. 

 Wings short in proportion; lesser quills ending in a small 

 point. Tail rather lengthened, considerably rounded, each 

 leather lanceolate and gradually attenuated to a fine point. 

 i thickly clothed with feathers to the base of 1he toes. 

 ih 31 inches (i lines. 



-Whole upper plumage, tail, wing-covers, ter- 

 tiaries, front of the neck, and sides of the breast, dark vim- 

 bar, or blackish-brown, and yellowish-white, irregularly 

 barred and mottled m nearly' equal quantities; but the 

 dark .ning larger blotches towards the base, and 



the lighter colour bars on the tips and stripes on the shafts. 

 * Now in the British MuMnm. 



Fore part of the belly white, barred with black; hinder 

 parts black. Plumage of breast and neck of ordinary form, 

 there being no scale-like feathers nor projecting shafts as 

 in the male. Length 22 inches 6 lines. (Fauna Boreali- 

 Americana,.) 



This is the Tetrao urophasianus of the Prince of Cani- 

 no, the Cock of the Plains of Lewis and Clark, and the 

 Pyamis of the Kyuse Indians. 



Food, Habits, fyc. The favourite food of this species is 

 said to be the pulpy-leaved thorn, but it probably feeds 

 also on buds and berries. 



This grouse appears to have been first recorded by Lewis 

 and Clark ; and it has since become familiar to the fur- 

 traders on the banks of the Columbia. Dr. Richardson 

 gives the following interesting account of its habits by the 

 late Mr. David Douglas : 



' The flight of these birds is slow, unsteady, and affords 

 but little amusement to the sportsman. From the dispro- 

 portionately small, convex, thin-quilled wing so thin, 

 that a vacant space half as broad as a quill appears be- 

 tween each the flight may be said to be a sort of flutter- 

 ing, more than anything else : the bird giving two or three 

 claps of the wings in quick succession, at, the same time 

 hurriedly rising, then shooting or floating, swinging from 

 side to side, gradually falling, and thus producing a clap- 

 ping, whirring sound. When startled, the voice is " Click, 

 cuc.k, CHC/I," like the common Pheasant. They pair in 

 March and April. Small eminences on the banks of 

 streams are the places usually selected for celebrating the 

 weddings, the time generally about sunrise. The wings of 

 the male are lowered, buzzing on the ground ; the tail 

 spread like a fan, somewhat erect ; the bare yellow oeso- 

 phagus inflated to a prodigious size, fully half as large as 

 his body, and, from its sott membranous substance being 

 well contrasted with the scale-like leathers below it on the 

 breast, and the flexile silky feathers on the neck, which on 

 these occasions stand erect. In this grotesque form he 

 displays in the presence of his intended mate a variety of 

 attitudes. His love-song is a confused, gialing, but not 

 offensively disagreeable tone, something that we can imi- 

 tate, but have a difficulty in expressing " Hurr-hitrr- 

 hurr-i--r-r-huii." ending in a deep hollow tone, not unlike 

 the sound produced by blowing into a large reed. Nest on 

 the ground, under the shade of Purshia and Artemisia, or 

 near streams, among Phuluris arundinucea, carefully con- 

 structed of dry grass and slender twigs. Eggs, from thir- 

 teen to seventeen, about the size of those ot the common 

 fowl, of a wood-brown colour, with irregular chocolate 

 blotches on the thick end. Period of incubation twenty- 

 oni 1 to twenty-two days. The young leave the nests a few 

 hours after they are hatched. In the summer and autumn 

 months these birds arc seen in small troops, and in winter 

 and spring in flocks of several hundreds. Plentiful through- 

 out the barren arid plains of the river Columbia; also in 

 the interior of North California. They do not exist on the 

 banks of the river Missouri, nor have they been seen in any 



Cock of the Plains. Male. (Swalnson.) 



place east of the Rocky Mountains.' {Fauna Boreali- 

 Americana.) 



Nuttall says that the flesh is dark and less palatable 

 than that of other species. 



TE'TRAPLA. [OmsENEs.] 



2L2 



