45 



RUFFED GROUS. 

 TETRAO UMBELLUS. 

 [Plate XLIX.] 



Jlrd. Zool. p. 301, Xo. ±79,— Buffed Heathcock, or Grous, Edw. 248.-~La Gelinote hupee de Pennsyl- 



manie, Bmss. I, 214.— PI. enl, 104 ^Buff. II, 281.-— Pftil. Trans. 62. 393.— Tubt. SysU 454.— 



PBAiiE's Museum f JVo. 4702. 



THIS is the Partridge of the eastern states, and the Pheasant 

 of Pennsylvania and the southern districts. It is represented 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 measurement, from the mouth of the lat- 

 ter. Its favorite places of resort are high mountains, covered 

 with the Balsam pine, hemlock and such like evergreens. Unlike 

 the Pinnated Grous, it always prefers the woods; is seldom or 

 never found in open plains ; but loves the pine sheltered declivi- 

 ties 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 bar- 

 rens of Kentucky, the Pinnated Grous was seen in great numbers, 

 but none of the RpfFecl; while in the high groves with which that 



VOL. VI. M 



