THE RUFFED GROUSE, AND OTHERS 



245 



names are Blue, Pine, and Gray Grouse, and 



also Pine-Hen. I first saw it alive in the 

 Shoshone Mountains, while skirting a very 

 steep mountain-side in search of mountain- 

 sheep. The stunted pines that struggle with 

 the slide-rock for existence, were not more than 

 thirty feet high, but in them perched, dan- 

 gerously near the ground, this handsome slaty- 

 blue Grouse. Its nearest neighbors were the 

 mountain - sheep, elk, magpie, Clarke's nut- 

 cracker, and golden eagle. 



This fine bird ranges up to timber-line, but 

 loves rough mountain-sides that are partially 

 covered with pines, cedars and firs. It usually 

 lives alone, but sometimes forms very small 

 flocks. The crop of a specimen which I shot 

 was stuffed full of fresh, green pine needles, 

 some of them two inches long. At that time, 

 however, the snow was a foot deep. 



This bird is recognizable by the broad, white 

 band across the end of its tail, and its slaty- 

 blue color. From Alaska to California is found 

 a subspecies, very much like the preceding, 

 called the Sooty Grouse. From western Mon- 

 tana to the Coast Range in Oregon and Wash- 

 ington, and northward to Alaska, is found the 

 Franklin Grouse, known very generall}- as the 

 "Fool Hen." because it trusts too much to 

 man's humanity, and often finds itself a victim 

 of misplaced confidence. This is one of the 

 last American birds to learn that man is a very 

 dangerous animal, and often devoid both of 

 mercy and of appreciation of the beautiful in 

 bird-life. 



The Canada Grouse, 1 also called the Spruee- 

 Grouse and Black " Partridge," is, as its most 

 acceptable name implies, the grouse of Canada 

 and the Northwest. It has the widest range of 

 any American member of the Grouse Family, — 

 from the Alaskan Peninsula southeastward to 

 northern Minnesota, Michigan, New York and 

 New England. It inhabits the evergreen forests 

 of that vast region, usually in very small flocks. 

 It does not really migrate, but by reason of 

 seasonal changes which affect its food supply, 

 it often shifts from one locality to another. (D. 

 G. Elliot.) 



In many localities it is known as the "Fool 

 Hen," — a name which is applied in various 



1 Ca-nach'i-tes canadensis can-a' ce. Length, about 

 It inches. 



places to several other species. Man is so con- 

 scious of his own insensate destructiveness, and 

 so accustomed to seeing all wild creatures fly in 

 terror before his baneful presence, he naturally 

 feels that any bird which trusts its life to his 

 tender mercies, and does not live in constant 

 fear of him, must indeed be a feathered fool! 

 For some strange reason, several members of the 

 Grouse Family arc surprisingly slow to com- 

 prehend man's true nature, and acquire the 

 flight instinct, which most other species learn by 

 experience in a few generations of contact with 

 the Universal Killer. 



The male Canada Grouse is readily recognized 

 by its black breast and throat, and black tail, 

 which handsomely set off the barred gray back 

 and sides. 



The Pinnated Grouse, or Prairie-Chicken,'- 

 lives chiefly in the memories of those who from 

 I860 to 1875 were " Western men," or boys. At 

 that time, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, and 

 the states adjoining, were the "West." Rail- 

 roads were few, all guns were muzzle-loaders, 

 and the game-dealers of Chicago were not 

 stretching out their deadly tentacles, like so 

 many long-armed octopi, to suck the last drop 



CANADA GROUSE. 



of wild-game blood from prairie and forest. 

 The "market-shooter" was a species of game- 

 butcher then unknown, and the beautiful, fer- 

 tile prairies, and prairie-farms of Illinois, Wis- 

 consin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and 



2 Tym-pa-nu'chus americanus. Average length of 

 male. IS inches. 



