The American Grouse and Their Identification 



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closely resemble each other. Terrestrial 

 forms with dark breastmeat. 

 Pedicecetes: Head moderately crested. No 

 neck -feather ornaments, and the tympanum 

 on either side rudimentary, with but 

 slight change in feathers overlying them. 

 Crescentic naked patch of peculiar forma- 

 tion over either eye. Tarsi full-feathered 

 and the feathers long and hair-like. Tail 

 shorter than a wing, and composed, 

 normally, of 18 stiff, pointed feathers, 

 the center pair softer, squared distally, 

 and one or more inches longer than the 

 one next on either side, the remainder 

 being graduated. Cock somewhat larger 

 than hen, otherwise sexes similar. 

 Centrocercus: Very large species, and the 

 largest of all American grouse. Air-sacs 

 of neck large, peculiar in form and situ- 

 ation, being livid in color, and capable of 

 extraordinary distention. In the very 

 long tail, the feathers are narrow and 

 graduated, being from 18 to 20 in number. 

 They are likewise stiff and acuminated. 

 The plumage about the tympanums, re- 

 markable in kind, structure and arrange- 

 ment. Tarsi feathered as far as the toes. 

 Sexes more or less alike in color of plumage; 

 but the female is not as large as the male, 

 and differs somewhat in form. 

 By careful study, use and consideration 

 of these generic characters, one will meet 

 with no trouble in referring any American 

 grouse, at least, to the genus to which it 

 belongs. To identify a species is another 

 matter, and to this subject the remaining 

 three articles of the present series will be 

 devoted, beginning here with the grouse 

 included in the genus Dendragapus. (Fig. 1). 

 This genus contains but one species, 

 that is, the famous dusky grouse D. obscurus, 

 which has a general range, in suitable local- 

 ities, extending over the Pacific coast regions 

 and the Rocky Mountains. They may 

 occur from the upper Mackensie and Yukon 

 Rivers, south to central Arizona, including 

 all the mountainous regions of California. 

 They are dark-colored birds, hence the 

 specific name obscurus. At the present 

 writing, the genus contains four pretty well 

 marked subspecies, the type species being 

 D. o. obscurus of the Rocky Mountain 

 region, with a range extending from northern 

 Colorado and Utah to the central regions of 

 the western parts of Arizona and New 

 Mexico, westward to Nevada as far as East 

 Humboldt Mountains. 



In varying localities, this bird is known as 

 the dusky grouse, also the gray or pine 

 grouse, and the pine hen. 



They vary greatly in size, old males 



with a length of 24 inches have been found, 

 though they average rarely more than 20, 

 and the hen never over 19. Males have a 

 wing-extent of 30 inches, the wing being 

 9 or 10 inches, and the tail 7 or 8. In weight 

 they run between 3 and 4 pounds. 



Old cocks have a sooty-brown back 

 showing zig-zag lines, made with fine mark- 

 ings of bluish gray, shaded with deep ochre, 

 and with small, white areas on the shoulders. 

 Flank feathers tipped with white and having 

 white shaft-stripes. Below, slaty-gray with 

 some white markings. Sides of head black, 

 the chin and throat densely speckled with 

 black and white. The somewhat enlarged 

 feathers on the side of the neck have black 

 tips, while their bases are white. The large, 

 more or less rounded, brownish-black tail 

 is mottled over with gray, it having a plain 

 gray terminal band an inch or more wide. 

 The 20 feathers composing it are broad for 

 their entire lengths, the whole appendage 

 being very handsome and striking. 



The dusky grouse has a black bill, orange 

 irides tinged with brown, with the comb 

 over either eye and tympanums all yellow. 



In the smaller hen, the coloration is lighter, 

 the ochre and white markings being more 

 varied, though the slate-blue under-parts 

 and tail-bar are quite distinctive. 



Pullets resemble the female, though the 

 shaft lines of the feathers of the upper parts 

 are peculiarly marked with white. Tail 

 with shaft-lines white, enlarging distally; 

 the feathers occasionally barred transversely 

 with wavy, blackish bars. 



Many sportsmen are familiar with this 

 big, clumsy grouse, and have called it the 

 "fool-hen" for the reason that it seems to 

 have no fear of man whatever. Years ago, 

 when I met with them in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, I noted as has everyone else who 

 ever shot a blue grouse that upon being 

 flushed, they almost invariably flew up into 

 one of the tall pines at hand, from which 

 place it was no trouble to shoot them either 

 with a rifle or shotgun. 



Variations in the matter of plumage and 

 other characters which are constant are 

 accountable for the defining of the remaining 

 three subspecies of this bird. 



The form that ranges northwesterly through 

 the coast mountains of California and Oregon 

 as far as Sitka, Alaska and the South Yukon 

 region, is known as the sooty grouse (fuligi- 

 nosus, sooty) or D. o. fuliginosus. This sooty 

 grouse shades into the dusky grouse (D. o. 

 obscurus) in Nevada and Idaho, and into 

 Richardson's grouse (D. o. richarsoni) in 

 various points in the Rocky Mountains, 

 the latter ranging from southwestern Mack- 

 ensie to eastern Oregon, Montana and Wyom- 



