44 GALLINACEOUS BIRDS 



termed packs, and it is then next to impossible to 

 approach them. The wood-grouse never pack. 



The flesh of all the gallinaceous birds is excellent. 

 They never have the sedgy or fishy taste which some 

 ducks and shore-birds have at times ; but the grouse 

 which live in the woods have a bitter taste when 

 eating the spruce buds, and the great sage-grouse 

 of the Western desert has often a decided flavor of 

 the artemesia or wild sage. There are in all forty-two 

 species and sub-species found in North America, but 

 many of these are much alike, and from the sports- 

 man's view-point there are but sixteen birds — the wild 

 turkey, three grouse of the open country, the prairie- 

 grouse, the sharp-tailed-grouse, and the sage-grouse ; 

 four grouse of the woods and mountains, the ruffed- 

 grouse, Canada-grouse, blue-grouse and ptarmigan ; 

 two imported pheasants, the Mongolian and English, 

 and six partridges, the California Valley partridge, 

 the mountain partridge, the scaled partridge, Gam- 

 bel's partridge, the Massena partridge, and last and 

 best, Bob-white. There are two additional Bob-whites 

 which are found in the Southwest and Mexico, so 

 different in their markings as to be worthy of special 

 notice. These are pictured and described. We first 

 go in pursuit of the turkeys and their relatives, the 

 pheasants ; then to the prairies and woods for the 

 grouse and to the fields for the partridges. 



The ornithologists now having agreed that there 

 are no quails in North America, I would strongly 

 urge the sportsmen to drop the terms " quail " and 

 " quail-shooting." It being evident that the ruffed- 

 grouse, with his feathered legs, is not a pheasant or 



