130 FRANK SCHLEY'S PARTRIDGE AND PHEASANT SHOOTING. 



HAB. Spruce forests and swamps of the Northern 

 United States to the Arctic Seas; West nearly to Rocky 

 Mountains. "North American Birds." Baird, Brewer and 

 Ridgway. 



HABITS. Baird, Brewer and Ridgway's description of 

 this bird's habits in the North American Birds, is as fol- 

 lows : "This bird, variously known as the Spruce or Wood 

 Partridge, Canada, Black, or Spotted Grouse, is found, in 

 favorable localities, from the Northern United States as 

 far North as the woods extend, to the Arctic Ocean, being 

 found, even in mid-winter, nearly to the 70th parallel. Sir 

 John Richardson found all the thick and swampy black- 

 spruce forests between Canada and the Arctic Sea abound- 

 ing with this species. In winter it descends into Maine, 

 Northern New York, and Michigan. Its migrations are, 

 however, only partial, as it is found in the severest weather 

 of mid- winter, in considerable numbers, as far North as 

 latitude 67. According to Mr. Douglass, West of the 

 Rocky Mountains it is replaced by the T. franldini. This 

 bird is said to perch in trees, in flocks of eight or ten, and 

 is so stupid that it may be taken by slipping a noose, fas- 

 tened to the end of a stick, over its head. When disturbed, 

 it flies heavily a short distance, and then alights again 

 among the interior branches of a tree. Richardson inva- 

 riably found its crop filled with the buds of the spruce- 

 trees in the winter, and at that time its flesh was very 

 dark and had a strong resinous taste. In districts where 

 the Pinus banksiana grows it is said to prefer the buds of 

 that tree. In the summer it feeds on berries, which render 

 its flesh more palatable. 



Captain Blakiston states that he has found this species 

 as far West as Fort Carlton, and Mr. Ross has traced it 

 northward on the Mackenzie to the Arctic coast. Mr. 

 Audubon met with it in Maine, in the vicinity of East- 

 port, where they were only to be met with in the thick 

 and tangled forests of spruce and hackmatack. They were 

 breeding in the inner recesses of almost impenetrable 

 woods of hackmatack or larches. He was informed that 



