GROUSE, PTARMIGAN 



(297) Dendragapus obscurus 

 obscurus 



f^d^v) (Gr., a tree, I love; Lat., dark). 



DUSKY GROUSE; BLUE- 

 GROUSE. Tail normally with 

 twenty feathers. Plumage as shown, 

 the hen being smaller and a little 

 lighter colored than the cock; tail 

 with a broad gray tip; back finely 

 vermiculated with gray and flank 

 feathers with white tips and shaft 

 lines. L., 20.00; W., 9.50; T., 7.50; 

 weight up to 3I lbs. 



Range — Rocky Mountains from 

 Col. to N. Mex 

 (297b) D. o. richardsoni (Douglas). 



RICHARDSON'S DUSKY 

 GROUSE . A rather darker variety 

 with the gray tail bar reduced in 

 width or wanting. Found in the 

 Rocky Mountains from Mackenzie 

 to Montana. 



Mearn's, Massena or Fool Quail, also in western Texas, 

 shows an indifference to mankind that is astonishing, to say 

 the least. In remote places in the mountains they often 

 stand stock still and gaze at a man in wonder, or will simply 

 squat down in plain view and not move until touched. 

 When they do fly, they go swiftly, making a sort of clucking 

 sound at the same time. 



Family TETRAONIDiE. Grouse, Ptarmigans, etc. 



The members of this family usually have a bare strip of 

 skin over the eye; the tarsi are quite perfectly feathered, 

 and som.etimes the toes; the toes when naked have horny, 

 fringe-like projections on the sides; many have bare spaces 

 or unusual development of the feathers on the sides of the 

 neck; the tail is of sixteen to twenty feathers, never folded 

 as in pheasants, nor of unusual length. 



DUSKY GROUSE are among the largest of the family, 

 a good cock bird weighing upward of three and a half pounds. 



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