No. 41.] BIRD NAMES. 



145 



extent twenty-two and a quarter inches ; tail (measured as be- 

 fore) a trifle less than four and seven eighth inches; weight 

 twenty-one and a half ounces. 



RUFFED GROUSE : RUFFED HEATH-COCK (" Ruffed Heath- 

 cock, or Grous " of Edwards, 1758 : see Nos. 38 and 40 for other 

 early applications of the name Heath-cock to our grouse): 

 BROWN RUFFED GROUSE:* DRUMMING GROUSE: SHOULDER- 

 KNOT GROUSE of Latham, who tells us (1783) of its being "called 

 by some the DRUMMING-PARTRIDGE;" and J. Sabine, in Appen- 

 dix to Franklin's Journal, 1823, speaks of the name Shoulder- 

 knot Grouse as "well known to the British settlers in the north- 

 ern parts." 



" Frank Forester" says: "Properly called the Ruffed or TIP- 

 PET GROUSE," and further remarks, " It is, therefore, equally 

 unsportsmanlike and unscientific to call the bird pheasant or 

 partridge ; and it is, moreover, as needless as it is a stupid bar- 

 barism, since the bird has an excellent good name of its own, 

 by which it should invariably 'be styled, whether in writing or 

 in conversation, by every one claiming to share the spirit of the 

 gentle sportsman." American edition of Hawker, 1846. "Gentle 

 sportsman" sounds funnily after such a tirade, and we could 

 smile broadly at the whole thing, had not this author's teachings 

 done so much to demoralize genuine young lovers of out-door 

 sport. 



To some Canadians, WHITE - FLESHER ; and this name is re- 



* Dr. Coues so distinguishes it (Birds of the Northwest, 1874) from other 

 varieties of ruffed grouse, which are now recorded in A. O. U. Code and 

 Check List, 1886, ns follows : Canadian Ruffed Grouse Bonasa umbellus togata 

 found in densely timbered portions of northern Maine and the British 

 Provinces, west to eastern Oregon and Washington Territory; Gray Ruffed 

 Grouse B. u. umbelloideaTtocky Mountain region of United States and Brit- 

 ish America, north to Alaska; Oregon Ruffed Grouse B. u. sabini Coast 

 mountains of Oregon, Washington Territory, and British Columbia. As Dr. 

 Coues says, the reader " may ignore the varieties unless he desires to be very 

 precise. They are merely geographical races of the same bird, differing a 

 little in color according to certain climatic influences to which they are re- 

 spectively subjected." 

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