io8 The Grouse Family 



son's ptarmigan, L. r. nelsoni ; Turner's ptarmigan, L. r. 

 atkensis ; TownsencTs ptarmigan, L. r. townsendi; Evermann's 

 ptarmigan, L. evermanni', and the white-tailed ptarmigan, Z,. 

 leucurus. 



THE RUFFED GROUSE 

 (Bonasa umbellus) 



Adult male Upper parts varied with yellowish brown and gray, 

 barred on head, neck, and upper part of back and wings, with 

 black and rufous ; lower part of back and rump, gray, inter- 

 spersed with dark red, and ovate spots of pale buff, surrounded 

 with black ; scapulars and wing-coverts conspicuously streaked 

 with buffy white ; primaries, grayish brown, outer webs barred with 

 creamy white ; upper tail-coverts, gray, mottled and barred with 

 black; on sides of neck, tufts of broad, lengthened feathers, 

 black, tipped with light brown and shot with metallic lustre; 

 throat, buff, faintly barred with brown ; lower parts, buff on 

 chest, shading to white below, barred with brown ; under tail- 

 coverts, buff, barred with dark brown and with a V-shaped 

 white mark at tip; tail, gray, or yellowish brown; sometimes 

 rusty, mottled with black and crossed by irregular buff bands, 

 bordered above by black, and a broad, subterminal black band 

 bordered above and below with gray, mottled with black, the 

 upper gray bar bordered above with a narrow black bar ; legs, 

 feathered to middle of tarsus ; maxilla, black ; mandible, horn 

 color. Total length, about 16 inches ; wing, 7^ ; tail, 6\. 



The female closely resembles the male, but is a trifle smaller and 

 has the neck-tufts smaller frequently is without them. The 

 downy young have the upper parts chestnut, a black line from 

 back of eye, across ear-coverts ; under parts, light buff. Range 

 eastern United States and southern Canada, from Massachu- 

 setts to northern Georgia, Mississippi, and Arkansas, westward 

 to the Dakotas. 



While a stanch supporter of Bob-white's claim 

 to the premier position among upland game, the 

 writer pleads guilty to a genuine love for the 



