378 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



SUB-ORDER GALLINJE. 



Bill usually rather short and stout, and less than the head ; basal portion hard, 

 generally covered with feathers, and not by a soft naked skin; legs lengthened; 

 the hind toe generally elevated above the level of the rest, and short ; when lower 

 down, it is longer; toes connected at the base by a membrane; the feathers of fore- 

 head not extending on the culmen in a point, but more restricted, and parted by the 

 backward extension of the culmen. 



FAMILY TETRAONID^. THE GROUSE. 







The Tetraonidce are pre-eminently characterized among gallinaceous birds by 

 their densely feathered tarsi, and by the feathers of the nasal fossa or groove, which 

 fill it completely, and conceal the nostrils; the toes are usually naked (feathered 

 to the claws in the ptarmigans), and with pectinations of scales along the edges ; 

 the tail feathers vary from sixteen to eighteen and even twenty in number; the 

 tail is rounded, acute or forked; the orbital region is generally somewhat bare, 

 with a naked stripe above the upper e3 r elid, beset by short fringe-like processes. 



TETRAO, LINNAEUS. 



Tetrao, LINN.EUS, Syst. Nat. (1744) Gray. (Type T. urogallus, L.) 

 Tail lengthened, slightly narrowed to the square or somewhat rounded tip; about 

 two-thirds the wing; the feathers with stiffened shafts; tarsus feathered to and 

 between the bases of the toes ; no unusual feathers on the side of throat ; culmen 

 between the nasal fossae nearly half the total length ; color mostly black. 

 Inhabit wooded regions. 



TETRAO CANADENSIS. Linnaeus. 

 T.ie Canada Grouse ; Spruce Partridge. 



Tetrao Canadensis, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat.^I. (1766) 274. Nutt, Man. I. (1832) 

 667. Aud. Orn. Biog., II. (1834) 437; V. (1839) 563. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Tail of sixteen feathers; feathers above distinctly banded with plumbeous; 

 beneath uniform black, with a pectoral band of white, and white on the sides of the 

 belly; chin and throat above black; tail with a broad brownish-orange terminal 

 band. 



Prevailing color in the male black; each feather of the head, neck, and upper 

 parts generally, having its surface waved with plumbeous-gray; this is in the 

 form of two or three well-defined concentric bars, parallel to each other, one along 

 the exterior edge of the feather, the others behind it ; the sides of the body, the 



