8 GEOXJSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNTTED STATES. 



sage cock of the sagebrush deserts of the Great Basin, a fine bird, 

 nearly as large as a turkey. 



Next are the species of the forested regions. The most notable 

 of these, the well-known ruffed grouse, occurs in wooded areas all 

 through the eastern and northern parts of the country from Maine to 

 northern California, and north to Alaska. Within this wide range 

 it varies sufficiently in color to be separable into four forms. The 

 Canada grouse, Avhich also has been separated into several local 

 forms, has nearly the same range in the north as the ruffed grouse, 

 but does not extend so far south. The Franklin grouse, closely related 

 to the spruce grouse, occurs only from the Rocky Mountains west, and 

 north to Alaska. The blue, or dusky, grouse, called ' fool-hen ' in the 

 Rocky Mountains, also varies in color in parts of its range so that 

 it has been divided into several not strikingly different local forms. 

 It is the largest of the forest-loving species and is found only in the 

 wooded mountain areas of the West, from the Rocky Mountains and 

 Sierra Nevada north to Alaska. The forest-inhabiting grouse are 

 rarely near neighbors of man, and hence are of less consequence to 

 agriculture than those of the open country. 



The last group of grouse comprises the ptarmigans, which live 

 above timber line on the high summits of the Rocky Mountains and 

 thence north over suitable country to the arctic tundras of Alaska. 

 The ptarmigans are remarkable for the way in which they meet the 

 seasonal conditions of their arctic home by changing the grays and 

 browns of their summer dress for the snowy-white of their winter 

 one. The willow grouse, or common white ptarmigan, a circumpolar 

 bird, is common on the tundras of Alaska and British America. 

 With it occurs the rock ptarmigan, which is rather more of a hill 

 bird, and which is represented on the Aleutian chain by four island 

 forms that differ slightly in color from it and from one another. The 

 white-tailed ptarmigan occurs above timber line in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains from the northern part of New Mexico to British Columbia 

 and Alaska. Owing to their arctic or subarctic honie's the ptar- 

 migans have practically no relations with agriculture. , They are resi- 

 dent throughout the year and abound in many parts of Alaska, where 

 they have long been prized as food by the natives, and now are a 

 welcome addition to the fare of the more recent population, though, 

 as a rule, their flesh is dry and without much flavor. 



The common tame turkey is a descendant of birds taken to Europe 

 from Mexico by the Spaniards early in the sixteenth century. The 

 wild turkeys of the United States originally occupied a large area 

 extending from the coast of Massachusetts west to Colorado and 

 south to Florida and the Mexican border. While they are of the 

 same species as the Mexican bird, they have been modified by the 

 varying conditions of their environment into four forms, distiiiguished 



