BIRDS OF NEW YORK 367 



same ; under parts grayish or tawny white with broad obscure bars of dusky, 

 becoming broad and blackish on the flanks. The hen is smaller, with shorter 

 tail and ruffs. This species, like the Screech owl, exhibits a kind of dichro- 

 matism, some specimens having a i^revailing rufous, or reddish brown color 

 of the upper parts, especially the tail, and others a prevailing gray, which is 

 not by any means confined to the subspecies t o g a t a , but is exhibited by 

 southern birds as well, both types of color often occurring in the same brood. 

 Length 16-19 inches; extent 23-25; wing 7-8; tail 5.5-7; tarsus 1.5-1.6; 

 middle toe and claw 1.7 5-1. 9; bill about .6; weight 18-24 otmces. 



Distribution. The Ruffed grouse was formerly common in every county 

 of New York from Staten Island to Mt Marcy, but is now rare in the more 

 thickly settled districts, and is probably extirpated from Richmond, New 

 York and Kings counties. It is most abundant on the borders of the Cats- 

 kills and the highlands of western New York, and in the outskirts of the 

 Adirondack country . It is impossible to draw definitely the boundary between 

 the Ruffed grouse proper (u m b e 1 1 u s) and the Canadian ruffed grouse 

 ( t o g a t a ) , as there is a continual gradation from the birds of south- 

 eastern New York to those of the Adirondack forests, which are certainly 

 of the subspecies t o g a t a . Birds from the highlands of eastern and 

 western New York are intermediate between the two. 



Haunts. The Ruffed grouse, or Partridge, as it is almost universally 

 called in this State, and "Pheasant" further south, is a bird of the wood- 

 lands. It prefers rugged hillsides and a country broken with gullies and 

 small streams, with a mixed growth of oak and pine, or of hemlock, beech, 

 birch and maple. A suitable woods for grouse has dense undergrowth, 

 and the birds frequent the borders of the forest, or the edges of openings and 

 slashings. In the wooded portions of the State, grouse are much more 

 abundant than in the settled districts, but even there they are most often 

 found about the burnt tracts or recently lumbered districts, where there 

 is both an abundant cover and a more plentiful supply of berries, tender 

 plant shoots and insects than in the depths of the forest. In settled districts 

 they are rapidly becoming uncommon, as their native coverts disappear, 

 and are now found principally in the wooded swamps, guUies and hill slopes. 

 In the fall, just before the trees drop their leaves, there is a dispersal of 



