THE RUFFED GROUSE. 



(Bonasa umhellus.) 



By C. a. Cooper (" SibtllInb ")• 



ADULT MALE. 



^^ ll 



^YES, brown; superciliary membrane (con- 

 cealed), orange-color in the spring, faint at 

 other times. Bill, horn-color, darkest above 

 and at tip; short, with upper part curved 

 over lower. Head, capped by a brownish- 

 gray crest; short feathers above the eye. 

 Throat, brownish-yellow. Front of lower 

 neck and breast, lighter, crossed with dusky bars; 

 brownish-yellow beneath the surface. Abdomen, 

 creamy-gray. Flanks, mottled with dark-brown 

 and white, or irregularly barred with black. Back, 

 top of neck, reddish-brown, finely speckled with 

 dusky, each feather being marked by a large heart- shaped 

 spot of reddish-brown or gray. Sides of lower neck 

 with bare space, concealed by tufts of long, broad, black 

 feathers called ruffs. Ruffs occasionally brownish -black, 

 each feather being squarely cut at its end, and terminally 

 bordered with a metallic lustre of blue or green; erected 

 at will. Tail, moderately rounded; erected or spread at 

 will; light reddish-brown above, sometimes gray; crossed 

 with natrow bars of dusky or black, and with one broad 

 bar of black near its end; tip, gray, and slightly convex; 

 consists of eighteen broad feathers; measures from six to 



(79) 



