LAND BIRDS. 227 
Mr. H. C. Oberholser, of Washington. He is also positive that other 
specimens in the University of Michigan Museum, viz., one from Delta 
county, two from Iosco county, and one from Houghton county, belong 
to the same subspecies. Mr. Frothingham also records this subspecies 
from the Michigan Forest Reserve in Roscommon county, where, however, 
he believes that both forms are found. On the other hand, Mr. William 
Brewster, who has examined most of the specimens in the Agricultural 
College collection, states that a specimen from Kalamazoo county and 
another from Ionia county are typical wmbellus, and that, as he has equally 
good representatives of this form from Cadillac, Wexford county (the highest 
ground in the Lower Peninsula), and from Oden, Emmet county (the 
northernmost county in the Lower Peninsula), he should “infer that all 
the grouse of the Lower Peninsula are likely to be wmbellus.’. He writes 
further “if I were forced to name your other three skins, from the Upper 
Peninsula, I should call them togata, but two of them are females (it is 
always more difficult to determine birds of this sex), and the third is cer- 
tainly not a typical togata. To that form the Chippewa county female 
affords a rather nearer approach than does the other female (from Marquette 
county). I should not care to definitely refer these three birds to togata, 
but I am inclined to think they are nearer to that subspecies than to 
umbellus” (Letter, March 18, 1907.) The Chippewa county specimen 
referred to was taken near Eckerman by Hon. Chase 8. Osborn, October 
26, 1906, and a second specimen, also a female, almost identical in plumage, 
was taken at the same time and sent to me, but was so badly mangled 
that I did not send the fragmentary skin to Mr. Brewster. At my request 
Mr. (now Governor) Osborn, who collected these specimens, examined 
and reported upon all the partridges killed by his party at Deerfoot Lodge, 
near Eckerman, in November and December 1906. He writes that out 
of 81 partridges taken by himself and his friends the proportion of gray- 
tailed birds to brown-tailed birds was about four to one, or possibly greater. 
Several red-tailed ones were noted. Of course the gray tail is by no means 
confined to togata, yet no distinctly rufous-tailed bird can be considered 
typical togata. ; 
As at present understood the Canadian Ruffed Grouse is a bird of the 
spruce swamps of the northernmost portions of the eastern United States, 
but it unquestionably intergrades with the typical wmbellus_so as to form 
a complete series of almost imperceptible gradations. Until we have 
numerous specimens from all parts of the Upper Peninsula, as well as from 
the northeastern counties of the Lower Peninsula, I do not feel safe in 
attempting to outline the distribution of the typical Canadian form in 
Michigan. However, it would seem perfectly safe to say that specimens 
of typical umbellus can be found anywhere in the Lower Peninsula and 
almost anywhere in the Upper Pertinsula, while specimens of typical 
togata will hardly be found in the Lower Peninsula and certainly not south 
of the Saginaw-Grand Valley. ; : _ 
It would seem that the Ruffed Grouse of Wisconsin are in very similar 
case. Mr. Brewster states that “although the Wisconsin and Michigan 
grouse that he has examined are darker and grayer than those from New 
England, they appear to be nearer wmbellus than to true togata, which 
almost invariably has the entire throat barred transversely with dusky 
markings, a feature not found in our birds” (Kumlien and Hollister, Birds 
of Wisconsin. p. 56). Rue 
The condtion in Minnesota seems to be similar. Dr. Thomas 5S. Roberts, 
