BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 185 



Range. — Subclimax deciduous woodland (aspen, poplar, and willow 

 communities) of the Rocky Mountain subalpine forest (Engelmann 

 spruce-alpine fir association) and the northern coniferous forest (white 

 spruce-balsam fir association) in the Canadian Life Zone; from north- 

 western British Columbia (Atlin) southward along the east slopes of 

 the Rocky Mountains to central eastern Idaho and northwestern Wyo- 

 ming; eastward through the aspen parkland and spruce-fir forest of the 

 prairie provinces of Canada, north to middle Manitoba (Oxford House) 

 and south to southwestern Ontario (Lake of the Woods), across On- 

 tario between Lake Superior and James Bay and across Quebec to the 

 north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.'^ 



Type locality. — Henry House, Alberta. 



Tetrao umbellus (not of Linnaeus) Wilson, Amer. Orn., vi, 1812, 45, part (Moose 

 Fort, Hudson Bay ; also the mountains that divide the waters of the Columbia 

 and the Missouri Rivers). — Sabine, Append. Franklin's Journ., 1823, 697, part. — 

 SWAINSON and Richardson, Fauna Bor.-Amer., ii, 1831 (1832), 342, part. — 

 Wilson and Bonaparte, Amer. Orn., ii, 1832 (printed by Whittaker, Treacher, 

 and Arnot) 249, part; ii, 1832 (?) (printed by Cassell, Fetter, and Galpin) 

 251, part (Moose Fort, Hudson Bay). — Jardine, Nat. Libr., Orn., iv. Gallina- 

 ceous Birds, pt. ii. Game birds, 1834, 149, part (banks of the Saskatchewan).— 

 Audubon, Synopsis, 1839, 202, part (Saskatchewan to Labrador) ; Orn. Biogr., 

 V, 1839, 560, part; Birds Amer., 8vo ed., v, 1842, 72, part (banks of Sas- 

 katchewan). — Wilson, Amer. Orn., ed. by Brewer, 1840, 430, part. 



T[etrao] umbellus Wilson and Bonaparte, Amer. Orn., ii, 1871, 265, part (Moose 

 Fort, Hudson Bay). 



Bonasa umbellus Baird, Rep. Pacific R. R. Surv., ix, 1858, 630, part (Hudson Bay 

 Territory). — Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence, Rep. Pacific R. R. Surv., 1860, 

 630 in table, part (Red River, Hudson Bay Territory). — Blakiston, Ibis, 1863, 

 127 (forks of Saskatchewan to Hudson Bay). — Turner, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 viii, 1885, 245 (Labrador).— Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxii, 1893, 

 85, part (Hudson Bay) ; Handb. Game Birds, i, 1896, 71, part. — Nutting, Bull. 

 Lab. Nat. Hist. State Univ. Iowa, ii, 1893, 266 (Lower Saskatchewan River). — 

 CouBEAux, Ottawa Nat., 1909, 27 (s. Saskatchewan). — Taverner, Auk, xxxvi, 

 1919, 13 (Red Deer River, Alberta) 264 in text (Miquelon Lake, near Camrose, 

 Alberta) ; Nat. Mus. Canada Bull. 50, 1928, 92 (near Belvedere, Alberta) .— 

 Shortt and Waller, Contr. Roy. Ontario Mus. Zool., No. 10, 1937, 17 (Lake 



"Although specimens from northern Ontario and middle Quebec average slightly 

 darker and have a greater proportion of the tarsus unfeathered than typical 

 umbelloides from the east slopes of the Canadian Rockies, the difference seems to 

 be too slight to recognize as a distinct subspecies. These characters merely indicate 

 the trend toward intergradation between umbelloides and togata. Therefore, 

 canescens Todd becomes a synonym of umbelloides. Ruffed grouse recorded farther 

 east in Quebec (Anticosti Island, Natashquan, and Wolf Bay) and in south- 

 eastern Labrador (Hamilton Inlet and Sandwich Bay) may belong to this race 

 also, but no specimens from these regions have been examined in the present study. 



Specimens from southern Manitoba (Shoal Lake and Carberry) are intermediate 

 between umbelloides, incana, and mediana, but on average characters, particularly 

 relatively short unfeathered tarsus, they seem a little closer to umbelloides. 



