GRAY RUFFED GROUSE. 



ALLAN BROOKS. 



While the 4 races of ruffed grouse in- 

 tergrade more completely than the sub- 

 species of any other American bird, still 

 the extreme forms look very different. 

 A specimen of the gray ruffed grouse 

 placed beside a typical Sabine's, or Ore- 

 gon ruffed grouse, would convince any 

 naturalist not an inveterate lumper that 

 the forms are at least entitled to sub- 

 specific rank, the gray tail and upper sur- 

 face and the lighter tone of the under parts 

 of umbclloidcs being in sharp contrast with 

 the rich, dark rufus coloration of sabinii. 

 Still, in certain localities in Northwestern 



range wherever the timber is dense and 

 the climate humid the grouse will approx- 

 imate to one of the other 3 forms, umbcllus, 

 togata or sabinii. 



In habits the gray ruffed grouse does 

 not differ from the typical species, being 

 the same fast flying, hard dying, gamy 

 bird; but he never, even in the utmost 

 solitudes, acquires the utter disregard of 

 man so characteristic of other grouse 

 when unmolested. With a properly train- 

 ed dog the wariest grouse falls an easy 

 prey to the pot hunter, and no form of 

 shooting requires less skill. When using 



GRAY RUFFED GROUSE, BON AS A UMBELLUS UMBELLOIDES. 



America a series completely uniting the 

 palest with the darkest form can be col- 

 lected in the space of a few miles. 



The range of the present subspecies, 

 umbclloidcs, lies from Manitoba Westward 

 to the Cascades, South to Utah and North 

 to Alaska. Typical examples with a light 

 gray tail and interscapular region are 

 only as a rule found on dry, sparsely 

 wooded uplands. Throughout the above 



a small caliber rifle there is some sport in 

 it; but to churn a load of shot into a 

 grouse, at short range, sitting stock still 

 on a limb, is little short of murder. Sports- 

 men should always protest against this 

 brutal practice. The sneak box duck run- 

 ter, or even the man who browns bay 

 birds, is far more of a sportsman than the 

 man who kills treed grouse with the aid of 

 a cur and a shot gun, 



IOI 



