DUSKY GROUSE. 91 



Ruffed Grouse, using all the arts of that bird in counterfeiting lameness, &c. 

 Female smaller than the male, lighter coloured, and wants the yellow warty 

 skin upon the sides of the neck." 



Mr. Nuttall's notice is as follows: — "The Dusky Grouse breeds in the 

 shady forests of the Columbia, where we heard and saw them throughout the 

 summer. The male at various times of the day makes a curious uncouth 

 tooting, almost like the sound made by blowing into the bung-hole of a 

 barrel, boo, ivh'h, ivh'h, ivh'h, wh'h, the last note descending into a kind of 

 echo. We frequently tried to steal on the performer, but without success, 

 as, in fact, the sound is so strangely managed that you may imagine it to 

 come from the left or right indifferently. They breed on the ground, as 

 usual, and the brood keep together nearly all winter. The Ruffed Grouse 

 also breeds here commonly, and I one day found the nest concealed near a 

 fallen log, but it was at once forsaken after this intrusion, though I did not 

 touch the eggs/' 



From the examination of specimens in my possession, I am persuaded that 

 this species, like Tetrao Cupido, has the means of inflating the sacs of bare 

 skin on the sides of the neck, by means of which, in the breeding season, 

 are produced the curious sounds above described. 



Tetrao oescurus, Say. Long's Exped. 



Tetrao obscurus, Bonap. Syn., p. 127. 



Dcsky Grouse, Tetrao obscurus, Bonap. Amer. Orn., vol. iii. pi. 18. 



Tetrao obscurus. Dusky Grouse, Swains. & Rich. P. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 344. 



Dcsky Grodse, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 666. 



Dusky Grouse, Tetrao obscurus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 446. 



Male, 22, wing 9|. Female, 19|, wing 9. 



From the eastern spurs of the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia river, 

 and northward to Hudson's Bay. Abundant. Resident. 



Adult Male. 



Bill short, robust, slightly arched, rather obtuse, the base covered by 

 feathers. Upper mandible with the dorsal line convex and declinate, the 

 ridge convex, the sides convex, the edges sharp and overlapping, the tip 

 thin-edged and rounded; lower mandible with the angle long and wide, the 

 dorsal line ascending and convex, the ridge broad, the sides convex, the 

 edges inflected, the tip rounded. Nostrils in the fore part of the large and 

 feathered nasal depression, roundish. 



Head small, ovate; neck of ordinary length; body large and full. Feet 

 stout, of moderate length; tarsus short, feathered; toes stout; the first very 

 small, the lateral about equal, and much shorter than the third; the anterior 

 toes connected by basal scaly membranes, partially covered with feathers; all 



