286 The Fowl-like Birds 



species (T. parwrostris), and this is replaced in Kamchatka by another (T. 

 kamchaticus) , which is the smallest of the genus. 



Dusky, Sooty, and Richardson's Grouse. Coming to North America, we 

 find several fine Groi/se belonging to the genus Dendragapus, which comprises 

 a single species with four subspecies. They are large birds, with the tail four 

 fifths as long as the wing, the only species being the Dusky Grouse (D. obscurus], 

 which is further characterized by having a tail of twenty feathers and the male 

 with distinct inflatable air-sacs on the sides of the neck. The plumage is dusky 

 grayish or dull blackish above and slate-gray below. The female is similar but 

 decidedly smaller and more or less spotted and barred with buff or brownish. 

 The Dusky Grouse, better known as the Blue Grouse, is found in the southern 

 Rocky Mountains from central Arizona to Idaho, South Dakota, and Nevada. 

 It frequents the borders of wooded mountain regions below timber line, and is 

 always resident where found. It is usually very tame and unsuspicious and when 

 startled will frequently fly into the branches of a near-by tree and remain gazing 

 at the intruder while perhaps shot after shot is fired at it with a pistol or rifle. 

 If a covey of half-grown young are flushed, the whole number may sometimes be 

 secured without one attempting to fly. Of the habits of the male during the 

 nesting season, as observed in Colorado, Mr. Gale writes: "It you are anywhere 

 near the haunts of a pair, you will surely hear the male and most likely see him. 

 He may interview you on foot, strutting along before you, in short, hurried 

 steps alternating from right to left, with widespread tail tipped forward, head 

 down and back, and wings dragging along the ground, much in the style of a 

 Turkey gobbler. At other times you may hear his mimic thunder overhead again 

 and again in his flight from tree to tree. As you walk along he leads, and this 

 reconnoitering on his part, if you are not familiar with it, may cause you to 

 suppose that the trees are alive with these Grouse. He then takes his stand upon 

 a rock, stump, or log, and in the manner already described distends the lower 

 part of his neck, opens his frill of white, edged with the darker feather-tips, 

 showing in its center a pink narrow line describing somewhat the segment of a 

 circle, then with very little apparent motion he performs his growling or groaning, 

 and having the strange peculiarity of seeming quite distant when quite near, 

 and near when -distant." The nest, usually well concealed, is a slight depression 

 in the ground and scantily lined with pine needles or grasses. The complement 

 of eggs is from seven to ten or sometimes more. Three well-marked subspecies 

 of this are known: the Sooty Grouse (D. o.fuliginosus\ a much darker bird of 

 the mountains of the Northwest; the Sierra Grouse (D. o. sierra), of the Sierra 

 Nevada and Cascade Mountains ; and Richardson's Grouse (D. o. richardsonii), of 

 the northern Rocky Mountains, of which the last may be known by the absence 

 of the terminal gray band on the tail. The habits are similar to those of the 

 typical form. 



Canada and Franklin's Grouse. The two species which belong to the 

 related genus Canachites differ from the preceding in the absence of the dilat- 

 able air-sac on the side of the neck and in having only sixteen feathers in the 

 much shorter tail. They are also much smaller birds, being only fifteen or 



