CHAPTER III 

 THE GROUSE FAMILY 



No Inherent Wildness. It is interesting to note how one's 

 conceptions about this noble tribe differ when viewed from 

 different standpoints. The wild, whirring creature of the 

 forest, self-reliant through its constant battle with innu- 

 merable dangers, is hardly recognizable as the same when it 

 learns to know man as a friend. It seems characteristic of 

 birds of this family to be capable of most remarkable lame- 

 ness, in contrast to the supposedly incurable wildness of their 

 nature. From the standpoint of AppHed Ornithology they 

 form a unique and pecuUarly interesting group. 



Grouse Species. The rufifed grouse, commonly called 

 "partridge " in the North, is the best known and most widely 

 distributed of the group. Next, probably, come the "prairie 

 chickens" — the pinnated grouse of the Middle West, its 

 nearly extinct relative, the heath-hen, formerly abundant in 

 the East, and the sharp-tailed grouse of the plains. The 

 Northern woods furnish the spruce partridge, while the 

 mossy and rocky barrens still farther on toward the cold 

 supply several varieties of ptarmigan which change their 

 mottled garb of summer to blend with the snow, which has 

 no terror for them. In the far West are the sage grouse and 

 the dusky or "blue grouse." 



Peculiar Birds. The general impression of the whole 

 tribe, from the standpoint of artificial propagation, is that 

 grouse are pecuUar birds, rather difficult to keep protractedly 



S5 



