I 
8 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES. 
sage cock of tlic sa<i:cl)insh deserts of (lie (Ircat Basin, a fine bird, 
nearly as large as a turkey. 
Next are the s|)(»cies of the fori'^led regions. The most notable 
of these, the well-known ruti'ed grouse, occurs in wooded areas all 
through the eastern and northern parts of the country from Maine to 
northern California, and north to Alaska. Within this wide range 
it varies sufliciently in color to be seijarable into four forms. The 
Canada grouse, which also has been separated into several local 
forms, has nearly the same range in the north as the ruffed grouse, 
but does not extend so far south. The Franklin grouse, closely related 
to the spruce grouse, occurs only from the Rocky Mountains west, and 
north to Alaska. The blue, or dusky, grouse, called ' fool-hen ' in the 
Rocky Mountains, also varies in color in parts of its range so that 
it has been divided into several not strikingly dift'erent local forms. 
It is the largest of the forest-loving species and is found only in the 
wooded mountain areas of the West, from the Rocky Mountains and 
Sierra Nevada north to Alaska. The forest-inhabiting grouse ar(> 
rarely near neighbors of man, and hence are of less consequence to 
agriculture than those of the open country. 
The last group of grouse comprises the ptarmigans, which live I 
above timber line on the high sunmiits of the Rocky Mountains and 
thence north over suitable country to the arctic tundras of Alaska. 
The ptarmigans are remarkable for the way in which they meet the I 
seasonal conditions of their arctic home by changing the grays and 
browns of their summer dress for the snowy-white of their winter 
one. The willow grouse, or common white ptarmigan, a circumpolar 
bird, is connnon on the tundras of Alaska and British America. 
With it occurs the rock ptarmigan, which is rather more of a hill 
bird, and which is represented on the Aleutian chain by four island 
forms that differ slightly in color from it and from one another. The 
white-tailed ptarmigan occurs above timber line in the Rocky Moun- 
tains from the northern part of New Mexico to British Columbia 
and Alaska. Owing to their- arctic or subarctic homes the ptar- 
migans have i:)racticall3^ no relations with agriculture. They are resi- 
dent throughout the year and abound in many parts of Alaska, where 
they have long been j)rized as food by the natives, and now are a 
welcome addition to the fare of the more recent ])()])ulati()n, though, 
as a rule, their flesh is dry and without much flavor. 
The common tame turkey is a descendant of birds taken to Euroj^e 
from Mexico by the Sj^aniards early in the sixteenth century. The 
wild turkeys of the United States originally occu})ied a large area 
extending from ihe coast of Massachusetts west to Colorado and 
south to Florida and the Mexican border. While they are of the 
same species as the Mexican bird, they have been modified by the 
varying conditions of their en viromnent into four forms, distinguished 
