384: ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



From about the middle of April to the 10th of May, ac- 

 cording to latitude and advance of the season, the nests are 

 prepared. 



These are formed of dried grasses and weeds, and are 

 loosely made on the ground, generally in a patch of weeds, 

 or a thick tussock of grass, or bunch of bushes. Sometimes 

 they are made in low lands which are occasionally overflowed 

 by spring rains or freshets ; the eggs are then destroyed, in 

 which case another setting is laid, but the chicks hatched 

 from them are of less size and strength than are those 

 hatched in earlier broods. 



The eggs of the Pinnated Grouse are generally ovoidal in 

 form, and are often pretty sharply tapered at their small 

 ends. They vary in color from a dirty drab to a grayish 

 white, and are covered more or less thickly with fine spots 

 or dots of brown ; some specimens have none of these 

 markings, while others are abundantly spotted. A large 

 number from which I took measurements averaged about 

 1.80 by 1.25 inch in dimensions. 



BONASA, Stephens. 



Bonasa, Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool., XL (1819). (Type Tetrao bonasia, L.) 



Tail widening to the end, its feathers very broad, as long as the wings ; the 

 feathers soft, and eighteen in number; tarsi naked in the lower half; covered with 

 two rows of hexagonal scales anteriorly, as in the Ortyginm; sides of toes strongly 

 pectinated ; naked space on the side of throat covered by a tuft of broad soft feathers ; 

 portion of culmen between the nasal fossae about one-third the total length ; top of 

 head with a soft crest. 



BONASA UMBELLUS. — Stephens. 

 The Euffed Grouse ; Partridge ; Pheasant. 



Tetrao umbellus, Linnreus. Sj-st. Nat., I. (1766) 275. Wils. Am. Om., VI. 

 (1812) 46. Aud. Om. Biog., L (1831) 211; V. 560. 



Tetrao (Bonasia) umbellus, Bonaparte. Syn. (1828), 126. Nutt. Man., I. ', 1833) 

 657. 



Bonasa umbellus, Stephens. Shaw, Gen. Zool., XI. (1824) 300. 



