PINNATED GROUSE.— 7'c(mo On'pida. 



The colour of the Pinnated Grouse is mottled witli i:)lack, white, and chestnut-brown, 

 the male having two wing-like appendages on the neck, composed of eighteen feathers, 

 five long and black, and thirteen shorter, streaked with black and brown. The male is 

 also known by the slight crest on the head, a semicircular comb of orange-coloured skin 

 over each eye, and the naked appendages to the neck already described. He is also larger 

 than his mate. The under parts are brown marked with white in broken transverse bars, 

 and the throat is white with mottlings of reddish brown and black. The length is about 

 nineteen inches. 



The EuFFED Geouse is spread over the greater portion of the United States, where it 

 is known either as Partridge or Pheasant, according to the locality. 



Its habits are described at length by Wilson, in his "American Ornitliology," to which 

 work the reader is referred for fuller information. His account of the " play " of the male 

 Puffed Grouse must, however, be given in his own words : " In walking through the 

 tolitary woods frequented by these birds, a stranger is surprised by suddenly hearing a 

 kind of thumping very similar to that produced by striking tv/o full-blown bladders 

 together, but much louder. The strokes at first are slow and distinct, but gradually 

 increase in rapidity, till they run into each other, resembling the rumbling sound of very 

 distant thunder, dying away gradually on the ear. After a few minutes' pause, this is 

 again repeated ; and in a calm day may be heard nearly a mile off. This drumming is 

 most common in spring, and is the call of the cock to his favourite female. It is produced 

 in the following manner : — 



The bird, standing on an old prostrate log, generally in a retired and sheltered situation, 

 lowers his wings, erects his expanded tail, contracts his throat, elevates the tufts of 

 feathers on the neck, and inflates his whole body, something in the manner of the turkey- 

 cock, strutting and wheeling about with great stateliness. After a few manoeuvres of 

 this kind, he begins to strike with his stiffened wings in short and rapid quick strokes, 

 which become more and more rapid till they run into each other, as has already been 

 described. This is most common in the morning and evening, though I have heard them 

 drumming at all hours of the day." 



