BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 49 



SUBFAMILY TETRAONIN^E. GROUSE. 



GENUS BONASA. STEPHENS. 

 300. Bonasa umbellus (LiNN.). 



Ruffed Grouse ; Pheasant. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Tail of eighteen feathers, reddish-brown or gray above ; the back with cordate 

 spots of lighter ; beneath whitish, transversely barred with dull brown ; tail tipped 

 with gray, and with a subterminal bar of black ; broad feathers of the ruff black. 



Tail lengthened, nearly as long as the wing ; very broad, and moderately rounded ; 

 the leathers very broad and truncate, the tip slightly convex, eighteen in number; 

 upper half of tarsus only feathered ; bare behind and below, with two rows of hexa- 

 gonal scutellse anteriorly ; a naked space on the side of the neck, concealed by an 

 overhanging tuft of broad, truncate feathers ; there are no pectinated processes 

 above the eye, where the skin instead is clothed with short feathers; iris, brown. 



Length, 18 inches; wing, 7.20; tail, 7 inches. 



Hah. Eastern United States, south to North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and 

 Arkansas. 



This well-known game bird is quite plentiful in various sections of 

 Pennsylvania. The species is most numerous in the mountainous 

 regions, heavily- wooded and thinly-settled districts. Dr. Coues says: 

 ; The ' drumming ' sound for which this bird is noted, is not vocal, as 

 many suppose, but is produced by rapidly beating the wings." Dur- 

 ing the breeding season and at other times, if not continually har- 

 assed by sportsmen, the Grouse are tame and unsuspicious. The nest 

 is made on the ground, and consists principally of leaves; it is al- 

 ways placed in the interior of a woods, and is usually concealed by a 

 log or thick bushes. The eggs are a yellowish- white color and num- 

 ber about fifteen. I once found a nest with nine eggs, in which in- 

 cubation was well advanced. E. A. Samuels, in his entertaining work, 

 u OUT Northern and Eastern Birds" says : u From several instances 

 which have come to my knowledge, I am inclined to think that the 

 female Ruffed Grouse, if persistently molested when nesting on the 

 ground, avails herself of the abandoned nest of a crow, or the shelter 

 afforded in the top of some tall broken trunk of a tree, in which she 

 deposits her eggs. Two of my collectors in Northern Maine have sent 

 me eggs which they positively declared were found in a crow's nest in 

 a high pine, but which are undoubtedly of this species ; and recently 

 I have heard of another occurrence from my friend L. E. Ricksecker, 

 of Pennsylvania. The only satisfactory theory that I can advance to 

 account for these departures from the usual habits of the Grouse, is 

 that the birds had been much disturbed, their eggs or young perhaps 

 destroyed ; and as they are often in the trees, and are expert climbers. 

 { hey laid their eggs in these lofty situations to secure protection from 

 t heir numerous foes below. 

 \ BIRDS. 



