Fig. 8. Ruffed grouse (B. u. umbellus). Reproduction of a photograph from life by Professor C. F. Hodge. 



black or brownish black, being smaller and 

 browner in the hen. In the male, it has a 

 steel-blue or dark greenish iridescence. 

 '"'With this description before one and 

 knowing the range taken in connection 

 with the cuts presented almost anyone 

 would be able to identify a ruffed grouse. 

 that is, Bonasa u. umbellus. This says 

 nothing for the subspecies that's another 

 affair and we will take those up at the 

 close of the article. Before doing so, how- 

 ever, it will be of interest to cite a few obser- 

 vations of other ornithologists upon the type 

 species now being considered. 



Wilson, who gives a long and very inter- 

 esting account of this bird, says "Dr. Turton 

 and several other English writers, have 

 spoken of a Long-tailed Grouse, said to 

 inhabit the back parts of Virginia, which 

 can be no other than the present species, 

 there being, as far as I am acquainted, only 

 these two,, the Ruffed and Pinnated grouse 

 found native within the United States." 



At the present writing, there are between 

 thirty and forty kinds known, which includes 

 the Alaskan forms. 



As part of a very accurate description, 

 Wilson further says, "The Pheasant, or 

 Partridge, of New England, is eighteen 

 inches long, and twenty-three in extent; 

 bill, a horn color, paler below; eye, reddish 

 hazel, immediately above which is a small 

 spot of bare skin, of a scarlet color; crested; 



head and neck variegated with black, red, 

 brown, white, and pale brown; sides of the 

 neck furnished with a tuft of large, black 

 feathers, twenty-nine or thirty in number, 

 which it occasionally raises; this tuft covers 

 a large space of the neck destitute of feathers; 

 ***** the legs are covered half 

 way to the feet with hairy down of a brownish 

 white color; legs and feet pale ash; toes 

 pectinated along the sides; the two exterior 

 ones joined at the base, as far as the first 

 joint, by a membrane; vent yellowish rust 

 color." 



Ridgway, who describes the downy young, 

 etc., gives the length as 15.50 to 19 inches, 

 (Manual, p. 197) or an inch more than 

 Wilson's measurement. We know that the 

 hen is considerably smaller than the cock 

 bird. He further states in the same place 

 that in the female "the neck- tufts are 

 rudimentary or obsolete." 



Coues, in the last edition (5th, p. 741) of 

 his "Key," agrees with Wilson in the size 

 of B. umbellus and says, among other things, 

 "Young of both sexes sufficiently resemble 

 the adults to be unmistakable, and detailed 

 description of every feather would be tedious 

 and profitless. Chicks in down are very 

 pretty, being of various buff shades deepen- 

 ing on some parts into chestnut, with a black 

 stripe on each side of the head. There is a 

 sort of dichromatism in this species, somewhat 

 like that of the red and gray Megascops owls, 



