TETRAOXID.E — TMK GROrSE. 



427 



Indians near rnfjet Sound In winter thi-y were so rarely seen west of the 

 mountains that tliey are lielieved to kee]> entirely in the trees. In October, 

 lSr)3, he saw a Hock running throuj,fh the snow near the Spokane Plains, 

 one of which was shot ; but he never afterwards met with any in the 

 winter. 



Mr. J. K. Lord found this (Jrouse almost exclusively on the western side 

 of the Iiocky Mountains. It a])i)eared at Vancouver, . Nisqually, and 

 along tiie banks of the Fraser Kivcr, about the end of March, the male bird 

 aiuiouncing liis coming l»y a kind of love-song. This is a booming noise, 

 repeated at short intervals, and so deceptive tiiat Mr. Lord has often stood 

 mider tlie tree where the bird was jicrched and imagined the sound came 

 from a distance. 



Mr. Nuttall found this Grouse breeding in the shady forests of the region 

 of the Columbia, wliere he saw or heard them throughout the summer. He 

 describes the tooting made by the male as rescndiling the sound caused by 

 blowing into the bung-hole of a l)arrel. They breed on the ground, and are 

 said to keep the brood together all winter. 



Town.send describes the eggs as numerous, of a cinereous-brown color, blunt 

 at both ends, and small for the l)ird. Tlie actions of the female, when the 

 young are following her, are said to be exactly similar to those of the Ruffed 

 Grouse, employing all the artifices of that bird in feigning lameness, etc., to 

 draw off intruders. 



Canace obscurus, var. richardsoni, Douglas. 



BICHABDSON'S DUSKT OBOTTSE. 



Tetrao obsciinis, Avr^. Oiii. Pjioj;. IV, 1S38, M4G, i.l. teciw. - lD.»Syn. 1839, 283. — In. 

 B. Am. I, 1842, 89. - Nutt. Oiii. I, 1840, t)09. — Swain.s. F. H. A. II, 1831, 344, pi. 

 lix, 1.x. 'I'llrao rich((rilmn!, Dori.i,. Limi. Trims. XVI, 141. — Lonn, Pr. K. A. I. 

 IV, 122 (iH'twci'ii C'liscade and Kocky Mountains). — C.it.w, Cat. B. Brit. Miis. V, 1867, 

 86. iJcndmiiapm rk/um/soui, Ki.i.ioT, P. A. X. S. 1864, 23. — lu. Moiiog. Tetraon. 

 ]il. — Wii.sos, Ilhist. 1831, pi. XXX, xxxi. 



S['. CiiAH. Tail-foatlRT.* broad and nearly truncated : tail almost perfectly square, and 

 black to the tip, with tlio torniinal band cither only faintly indicated or entirely wantiufr; 

 ill all other respects exactly like var. ob.icnni.1. Male (1S,;J!»7, Browns Cut off. N. 

 Roc'ky Mountains ; Lieutenant Mullan). Length, about 20.00; wing-, 9.00; tail, 7.30; 

 tarsus, 1.70: middle toe, l.So. Fem,ilo (1S,:!98, forty miles west Of Fort Benton; 

 Lieutenant Mullan). AVing, 8.00; tail, 0.00; tarsus, l.GO; middle toe. l.fiO. 



Il.vn. Rocky Jlountains of British America, .south to the Yellowstone and Hollgate 

 region of tlie United States. 



No. 18,377, Ilellgate, and otiiers from localities where this form and var. 

 ohsruriin approach each other, have the terminal zone of the tail of the usual 

 width, and even sharply defined ; but it is so dark as to be scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable from the ground-color. 



