BIRDS OF NEW YORK 365 



Canachites canadensis canace (Linnaeixs) 

 Canada or Spruce Grouse 



Plate 41 



Tetrao canadensis Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:159 



DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 206, fig. 173 

 Dendragapus canadensis A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. ^o. 298 



canachi'tes, Gr., ;(ava;^«(o, to make a noise, referring to the drumming; canaden' sis , 

 of Canada; cand'ce, Gr., KavaK»;; canace, daughter of Aeolus, from Kavaxv, a noise 



Description. Tarsi feathered to the toes; a bare orange spot above 

 the eye; no crest or ruff; tail of i6 feathers. Male: Upper parts and 

 sides wavy barred with black and gray; under parts extensively black with 

 white feather tips; tail black with ocherous rufous or orange -brown tip. 

 Female: Quite uniformly varied with ocherous, gray and blackish, the 

 ^ray appearing as a veil cast over the ocherous and blackish bars; under 

 parts with white feather tips. Young: Similar to female. 



Length 15-17 inches; wing 7; tail 5.5. Hens smaller than cocks. 



The Canada grouse, Spruce grouse. Spotted grouse or Spruce "partridge," 

 is confined to the boreal life zone of North America. In New York it occurs 

 only in the spruce, fir, and tamarack forests of the Adirondacks where it is 

 a strictly resident species. It was formerly common throughout the tama- 

 rack and spruce swamps of the North Woods, but for many years it has 

 become scarcer and scarcer, until it is now threatened with extermination 

 in otir State. On September ist, 1879, Dr Merriam noted it as common on 

 the Brown's Tract Still -Water, Herkimer county, and fotind it near Big 

 Moose in 1880 and 1882. Mr Scott Brown of St Huberts showed me a 

 fine pair which were taken in the swamp along the cold slough near the 

 head of Upper Ausable lake, in the fall of 1904. Mr Miner of Saranac 

 stated that only one specimen in many years had been brought to his place 

 to be mounted. This grouse is so unsuspicious that when disturbed they 

 alight in neighboring trees and the whole company may be shot down one after 

 another without a single bird escaping. Thoughtless hvmters have often 

 accomplished this feat and afterward told of it as being an exploit of sports- 

 manship. As the species is of local occurrence in the Adirondacks, it is 

 -easy to see how this treatment has brought about its destruction. In 



