190S.] 



BIRDS. 



337 



was dwarfed and scrubby. The Indian guide reported the species 

 common on the foothills west of Fort Simpson and on all the moun- 

 tains along Liard River. 



On June -i, 1904, while collecting near the summit of the same 

 mountam, I flushed and killed an adult male. Its crop was filled 

 with leaves of low willows {Salix myrtillifolia) ^ berries of mountain 

 cranberry {Vitisidoea ritisidma)^ and berries and flowers of bearberry 

 {Arctostaphylos iivaursi) . 



This well-marked form was first described by David Douglas under 

 the name Tetrao richardsoni^ from specimens collected by him in 

 the Rocky Mountains near the sources of the Athabaska."^ Two years 

 later Richardson described a male taken by Drummond " on the 

 Rocky Mountains," probably not far from where Douglas collected 

 his specimens.^ The next important note on the species which I 

 find is also by Richardson, who refers to the bird under the name 

 • Tetrao Sayi^'' stating that it " has not been killed farther north than 

 the Xohhane Bute." ^ Ross listed T. richardsoni as being found 

 north to Fort Halkett " only in the mountains." ^ Specimens from 

 Fort Halkett are still in the National Museum. Ogilvie-Grant lists 

 specimens in the British Museum from the same place and from Fort 

 Simpson ; ^ and the National Museum bird catalogue shows that skins 

 were received also from Fort Liard and the mountains west of Fort 

 Simpson. The British Museum specimens also, listed by Ogilvie- 

 Grant from Fort Simpson, in all probability were taken in the moun- 

 tains to the westward. 



J. Alden Loring collected a pair near Jasper House, Alberta, Au- 

 gust 27, 1895. In 1896 he reported seeing a female with young 15 

 miles south of Henry House in July, and speaks of shooting four 

 individuals near the head of Grand Cache River, 60 miles north of 

 Jasper House, late in August. He collected a female 15 miles west 

 of Henry House on October 12. 



MacFarlane writes me that a Richardson grouse was shot at Fort 

 Providence on March 20, 1885. 



Canachites canadensis (Linn.). Hudsonian Spruce Grouse. 



Though found throughout the region, this species was not noted 

 during our 1901 trip until we reached Fort Chipewyan, where a 

 female was taken May 21. It was uncommon in the immediate 

 vicinity of that post, but at Point La Brie, on the north shore of the 



« Trans. Linn. Soc. London, XVI, p. 141, 1829. 

 ^ Fauna Boreali-Americana, II, p. 345, 1831. 

 ^ Arctic Searching Expedition, I, p. 179, 1851. 

 '^Nat. Hist. Rev., II (second ser.), p. 283, 1862. 

 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XXII, p. 77, 1893. 



44131— Xo, 27—08 22 



