IF the red grouse of Britain is, as I believe him to 

 be, the king of the entire grouse family, then, of a 

 surety, the next best one, our own ruffed bird, should 

 be president of feathered Americans and governor- 

 general of wilder Canada. Nor is the premier 

 position among the grouse of this continent a trifling 

 honor, for we have many species and good game- 

 birds withal. Largest of these is the big sage 

 grouse, which, unfortunately, owing to its diet, is 

 not a delicacy upon the board. Much better known, 

 and as much better in every other way, are the 

 pinnated grouse the prairie chicken and its 

 varieties, haunters of the great grassy seas of the 

 prairie states and northwestern Canada. One 

 variety, the heath hen, used to be common in the 

 Eastern States, but it is now confined to Martha's 

 Vineyard. That rare good bird, the sharp-tail 

 grouse of the prairies, is by many preferred to its 

 blunt-tailed cousin, the " chicken." The large dusky 

 grouse, second in size only to the sage grouse, or 

 cock of the plains, inhabits the 'forested ranges of 

 the West from New Mexico to Alaska, while, in 



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