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Genus BONASA. 



Tetrao apud Linnseus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 275 (1766). 



Bonasa, Stephens in Shaw's Gen. Zool. xi. pt. 2, p. 298 (1819). 



Bonasia apud Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 179 (1829). 



The Hazel-Grouse inhabit the Palaearctic and Nearctic Regions, one species being resident in the 

 Western Palsearctic Eegion. 



They frequent wooded localities, especially where conifers intermixed with non-evergreen 

 trees abound. They walk with ease, and appear to spend a good deal of their time on the ground 

 searching after food ; but when flushed they at once fly into a tree and trust to concealment 

 amongst the foliage. They are usually found singly or in pairs in the spring and early summer ; 

 and when the young are able to accompany their parents they range about in family coveys. 

 They are somewhat peculiar in their partiality for one locality, and seldom range far. Their 

 flight is noisy and tolerably strong ; but they seldom fly far, usually only for a distance of from 

 fifty to a hundred yards. Their call-note is a peculiar whistle, uttered when they are separated 

 and call to each other. They feed on buds, seeds, berries, and insects of various kinds. They 

 are monogamous, and appear to be much attached to their mates. Their nest is a mere hole 

 scratched in the ground, usually under cover of a bush, and scantily lined with grass ; and their 

 eggs, which are numerous, are pale yellowish with a rufous tinge, sparingly spotted with rufous. 



Stephens (I. c), who founded this genus, included in it only two American species — one of 

 which, Bonasa umbellus, is congeneric with our Hazel-Grouse, whereas the second, the Pinnated 

 Grouse, has been subsequently, and with good reason, separated generically, and now stands as 

 Cupiclonia ciqndo. Kaup (I. c), who only treated of the genera of European birds, included only 

 the Hazel-Grouse in this genus, making it the type. 



Bonasa umbellus must undoubtedly be considered to be the type of the genus ; but as this 

 species does not occur in the Western Palsearctic Region, 1 give the characters of our bird, 

 Bonasa betulina, as follows, viz : — beak moderate, stout, decurved towards the tip ; nostrils basal, 

 lateral, concealed by short feathers, which cover the nasal membrane and extend nearly to the 

 middle of the bill ; feathers on the crown elongated, forming a crest ; a small, narrow bare 

 place above the eye ; wings rather short and broad, the first quill shorter than the secondaries, 

 the second shorter than the sixth, the next three nearly equal and longest ; tail moderately long, 

 broad, slightly rounded ; tarsus scutellate, on the upper half feathered ; toes bare, scutellate, 

 pectinated on the sides ; claws moderately long, obtuse, slightly curved. 



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