330 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 24 



colored bar across the center of the tail, not to be seen unless the 

 feathers are widely spread. Of the two immature males, one has the 

 tail black except for scattered and faint reddish spots near the tips of 

 some feathers ; the other has the central rectrices narrowly tipped with 

 whitish, some of the others very faintly with pale reddish. Of the 

 five females, all have the central rectrices with more or less of a pale 

 margin at the tip, and only one lacks such tipping to the lateral 

 rectrices. 



The adult male has large and conspicuous whitish spots on the long 

 upper tail coverts. On the two immature males these spots are poorly 

 indicated. On the two summer females they are inconspicuous; two 

 of the three fall females have them conspicuously present, in one they 

 are slight. In this series of birds there is no evidence of two color 

 phases (as described by Riley, loc. cit.). 



Bonasa umbellus umbelloides (Douglas). Gray Ruffed Grouse 



Abundant throughout the poplar woods of the lowlands. On June 

 18 several broods of small young were seen, and from then on flocks 

 of growing youngsters were frequently encoiintered. Toward the end 

 of August some flocks were of such size as to make it seem probable 

 that they were composed of two or more broods. The cocks are solitary 

 through the summer ; even in September extremely wary single birds 

 were flushed that were assumed to be old males that had not yet joined 

 the flocks. 



Fourteen specimens collected (nos. 42014-42027), one old male, 

 June 5, the others all taken in^eptember and in the latter stages of 

 the autumnal molt. The molt is completed about October 1. Two are 

 red tailed, twelve gray tailed, indicating a preponderance of the gray 

 phase in this region. 



Two fall specimens at band from St. John trail, upper Peace River, 

 Alberta, may be assumed to be representative of typical umielloides. 

 The birds from Hazelton and Kispiox Valley, though referable to 

 umhelloides, are appreciably less grayish, more brownish in coloration, 

 than these Peace River specimens, and they are also less gray than 

 ruffed grouse from the upper Stikine River, to the northward. The 

 increased brownness of the Skeena Valley grouse may be indicative of 

 intergradation toward sabini of the southern coastal region of British 

 Columbia. How far north sabimi extends is as vet undetermined. 



