RUFFED GROUSE. 2 $I 



BUFFED GROUSE. (Tetrao umbellus) 



PLATE XLIX. 



Arct. Zool. p. 301, No. 179.— Buffed Heathcock or Grouse, Edio. 248.— LaGelinote 

 Huppee de Pennsylvanie, Briss. i. 214, PL enl. 104. — Buff. ii. 281.— Phil. 

 Trans. 62, 393.— Turt. Syst. 454.— Peale's Museum, No. 4702. 



BOH ASIA UMBELLUS.— BoNAFAKTE.* 



Tetrao umbellus, Ternm. Pig. et Gall. Ind. p. 704. —Tetrao hurpecal, Temm. Pig. 

 et Gall. iii. p. 161. — Bonasia umbellus, Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool. xi. p. 300. — 

 Bonasia umbellus, Bonap. Synop. p. 126. — The Buffed Grouse, Aud. Orn. 

 Biog. i. p. 211, pi. 41, male and female. 



This is the partridge of the eastern States, and the pheasant 

 of Pennsylvania and the southern districts. It is repre- 

 sented in the plate of its full size, and was faithfully copied 

 from a perfect and very beautiful specimen. 



This elegant species is well known in almost every quarter 

 of the United States, and appears to inhabit a very extensive 

 range of country. It is common at Moose Fort, on Hudson's 

 Bay, in lat. 51°; is frequent in the upper parts of Georgia ; 

 very abundant in Kentucky and the Indiana territory ; and 

 was found by Captains Lewis and Clarke in crossing the great 

 range of mountains that divide the waters of the Columbia and 

 Missouri, more than three thousand miles, by their measure- 

 ment, from the mouth of the latter. Its favourite places of 

 resort are high mountains, covered with the balsam pine, 

 hemlock, and such like evergreens. Unlike the pinnated 

 grouse, it always prefers the woods ; is seldom or never found 

 in open plains ; but loves the pine-sheltered declivities of 

 mountains near streams of water. This great difference of 

 disposition in two species, whose food seems to be nearly the 

 same, is very extraordinary. In those open plains called the 

 Barrens of Kentucky, the pinnated grouse was seen in great 

 numbers, but none of the ruffed ; while in the high groves 



* Bonasia is a sub-genus, formed by the Prince of Musignano for the 

 reception of this bird. The distinctions are, the unplumed tarsi and 

 toes, contrasted with Tetrao, where the former are thickly clothed. — Ed. 



