Sharp-tailed and Sage Grouse 289 



the female. A well-marked subspecies, Attwater's Prairie Hen (T. a. attwateri), 

 is found along the coasts of Louisiana and eastern Texas. It is lighter in color 

 and has considerably more of the tarsus naked, while along the eastern border 

 of the Great Plains is found the still smaller and lighter colored Lesser Prairie 

 Hen (T. pallidicinctus). 



The Heath Hen (T. cupido), the only remaining species, was formerly found 

 in southern New England, Pennsylvania, Virginia, etc., but is now entirely 

 confined to the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and within an 

 area of forty square miles. In the spring of 1890, Mr. Brewster estimated that 

 the total number of birds could hardly exceed two hundred, and it is understood 

 that this number has since been still further reduced, perhaps almost to the point 

 of extermination. Unlike the principal species, they are " mainly, if not exclu- 

 sively, confined to the woods, haunting oak scrub by preference and feeding 

 largely on acorns." 



Sharp-tailed and Sage Grouse. Also distinctly American are the Sharp-tailed 

 Grouse (Fed locates}, so called from the fact that the tail is graduated with the 

 middle pair of feathers projecting much beyond the others ; there are no elongated 

 tufts or air-sacs on the sides of the neck. They are rather large birds, though 

 smaller than the Prairie Hen, irregularly spotted and barred above with black 

 and brownish, and white beneath, where there are often V-shaped markings 

 of dusky. Three forms are known, the true Sharp-tailed Grouse (P. phasi- 

 anellus), a very dark colored bird inhabiting the wooded districts and prairie 

 borders of the interior of British America ; the Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse 

 (P. p. columbianus}, a lighter colored form of the grass-covered plains of the 

 northwestern United States; and the Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse (P.p. cam- 

 pestris), also a light-colored but more reddish bird, inhabiting the Great Plains. 

 Similar to these, but differing in having the tail longer instead of shorter than 

 the wings, is the Sage Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), which next to the 

 Wild Turkey is the largest of the North American game birds. It inhabits 

 the sage-brush plains and table-lands of the western parts of the United States, 

 feeding on the leaves of the sage-brush (Artemisia), berries, fruits, and occa- 

 sional insects. 



The two remaining genera of Grouse one in North America and the other 

 in the northern portions of the Old World may be known at once from those 

 previously mentioned by having the lower part of the tarsus naked. The former 

 contains the Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa), which are further distinguished by a ruffed 

 frill of broad, soft feathers on each side of the neck, and a tail composed of 

 eighteen feathers, while the latter embraces the Hazel Hens (Tetrastes) that 

 are without the frill on the sides of the neck and have a tail of sixteen feathers. 



The Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) is one of the best known and most 

 highly prized of American game birds, and the single polymorphous species, 

 which has been separated into four comparatively slight color forms, ranges 

 over practically the whole of the wooded portions of North America, except 

 at the far south. The Ruffed Grouse, known mainly in the Northern States 

 as the Partridge, while in the South it is commonly called the Pheasant, 



