430 RUFFED GROUSE. 
% 
RUFFED GROUSE.—TETRAO UMBELLUS. — Fie. 195. 
Arct. Zool. p. 301, No. 179.— Ruffed Heathcock, or Grouse, Edw, 248. —La ge- 
linote huppée de Pennsylvanie, Briss. i. 214. Pl. enl. 104, — Buff. ii. 281.— 
Phil. Trans. 62, 393.— Turt. Syst. 454, — Peale’s Museum, No. 4702 
. 
BONASIA UMBELLUS. — Bonaparte.* 
Tetrao umbellus, Zemm. Pig. et Gall. Ind. p. 7104. — Tétrao hurpecal, Temm. Pig. 
et Gall. iii. p. 161. — Bonasia umbellus, Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool. a 300. — Bo- 
nasia umbellus, Bonap. Synop. p. 126.— The Ruffed Grouse, Aud. Orn. Biog. 
i. p. 211, pl. 41, male and female. 
Tuis is the Partridge of the Eastern States, and the Pheasant of 
Pennsylvania and the southern districts. It is represented in Fig. 
195, of its full size, and was faithfully copied from a perfect and very 
beautiful specimen. 
This elegant species is well known in almost every quarter of the 
United States, and appears to inhabit a very extensive range of coun- 
try. It is common at Moose Fort, on Hudson’s Bay, in lat. 51°; is 
frequent in the upper parts of Georgia; very abundant in Kentucky 
and the Indiana Territory ; and was found by Capt. Lewis and Clark 
in crossing the great range of mountains that divide the waters of 
the Columbia and Missouri, more than three thousand miles, by their 
measurement, from the mouth of the latter. Its favorite places of re- 
sort are high mountains, covered with the balsam pine, hemlock, and 
such like evergreens. Unlike the Pinnated Grouse, it always prefers 
the woods; is seldom or never found in open plains; but loves the 
pine-sheltered declivities of mountains near streams of water. This 
great difference of disposition in two species, whose food seems to be. 
nearly the same, is very extraordinary. In those open plains called 
the Barrens of Kentucky, the Pinnated Grouse was seen in great 
numbers, but none of the Ruffed; while, in the high groves with which 
that singular tract of country is interspersed, the latter, or Pheasant, 
~was frequently met with; but not a single individual of the former. 
The native haunts of the Pheasant being a cold, high, mountainous, 
and woody country, it is natural to expect that, as we descend from 
thence to the sea-shores, and the low, flat, and warm climate of the 
Southern States, these birds should become more rare; and such in- 
deed is the case. Inthe lower parts of Carolina, Georgia, and Flori- 
da, they are very seldom observed ; but, as we advance inland, to the 
mountains, they again make their appearance. In the lower parts of 
New Jersey, we indeed occasionally meet with them; but this is 
owing to the more northerly situation of the country; for even here 
they are far less numerous than among the mountains. 
r. Turton, and several other Englisn writers, have spoken of a 
Long-tailed Grouse, said to inhabit the back parts of Virginia, which 
can be no other than the present species, there being, as far as I am 
* Bonasia is a sub-genus, formed by the Prince of Musignano, for the reception 
of this bird. The distinctions are, the unplumed tarsi and toes, contrasted with 
Tetrao, where the former are thickly clothed. — Ep. 
