406 
BONASA UMDELLUS, VAR. UMBELLUS (STEPHENS). 
RUFFED GROUSE: PARTRIDGE: PHEASANT. 
Specific Character.—Above, ochraceous brown, finely mottled with grayish ; 
the scapulars and wing coverts with pale shaft streaks, the rump and under tail 
coverts with medial cordate spots of pale grayish. Tail, rufous, narrowly barred 
with black, crossed terminally with a narrow band of pale ash, then a broader one 
of black, this preceded by another ashy one. (In specimens from the Alleghany 
Mountains and New England States, the tail is usually more or less grayish to 
the base, sometimes entirely destitute of the rufous tinge). Lower parts white, 
yellowish beneath surface, with broad transverse bars of dilute brown, these 
mostly concealed on the abdomen. Throat and foreneck ochraceous. The 
feathers of the crown can be raised as a crest. Neck tufts, glossy black. 
Length, 18.00 inches; wing, 7.20; tail, 7.00. Female smaller and with the 
neck tufts less developed, but the colours similar. 
Habitat.—Eastern part of North America from Georgia to Nova Scotia and 
from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. Richardson in his description of its 
habits says, that he met with it as far north as the 56th parallel of latitude. This 
well-known Grouse is still found over almost the whole of Ontario, but within 
the last few years its numbers are sadly diminished. This is the more to be 
regretted as it is without doubt the best game bird of the Province. This Grouse 
is a constant resident, and as ageneral rule is in no sense migratory, unless as the re- 
sult of bush fires or a scarcity of food it may be induced thereby to shift its grounds 
afew miles. It is very fond of rough mountain and hill sides and the borders of 
rivers and small streams, in fact it is to be found wherever wooded country is to 
be met with. In Ontario we have both the rufous and grayish tailed birds if they 
may be called varieties ; in other respects they seem alike and are found in the 
same covers. This bird when flushed, usually flies in a straight line but seldom 
for more than a few hundred yards at a time, when it alights, generally on the 
ground, and if followed will often be found to lie very close allowing the sports- 
man to pass within a few feet of it, when if it finds itself discovered it rises 
suddenly with a loud whirring noise, enough to disconcert the steadiest shot, 
who, if not on the alert, will be sure to find that his bird has almost instantly 
placed a bush or tree between them, and his chance of adding to his bag gone. 
When they light upon a tree they can be followed and more easily shot, and it isin 
this way that the pot-hunter makes such bags with his little dog trained to “ tree 
patridge,” that is, to follow them, chiefly by sight, and to bark at the foot of the 
tree till the hunter sneaks up and shoots the poor bird as it sits staring at the 
dog. On almost every other occasion it is a cunning, wary bird, strong on wing 
and hard to shoot, and if hunted in a sportsmanlike way, with a good setter or 
pointer, affords good sport. 
The Grouse is more or less polygamous and the love season commences early 
in March, and is indicated by the drumming of the male birds. This sound is 
produced by the male bird only, who standing on a fallen log or on an elevated 
rock in a retired part of the woods, erects himself, expands his tail, and seems to 
inflate his whole body, then bringing his wings forward slowly at first, he beats the 
air with them in a rapid, vibratory motion, thus producing a sound which resembles © 
the distant and closing reverberations caused by remote thunder, and seems to the 
listener much nearer than it really is. It has long been a disputed question as to 
how the bird produces the peculiar sounds, but on more than one occasion 
