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SUBSPECIES. The Ruffed Grouse is split into a number of recognized subspecies. 
The Canada Ruffed Grouse Bonasa umbellus toqata is the east Canadian form and extends 
across the continent into southern British Columbia and to the east slopt- of the Coast 
range. This is the bird described above. The Grey Ruffed Grouse Bonasa umbellus 
umbelloides occupies the interior of British Columbia. It has considerably more grey 
veiling on back and elsewhere and the red phase is scarcer. The Yukon Ruffed Grouse 
Bonasa umbellus yukonensis is a newly recognized form of Alaska and Yukon. It 
carries the general greyness still farther than in the previous forms. The Oregon Ruffed 
Grouse Bonasa umbellm sabini is the bird of the Pacific coast, west of the Coast range. 
This is a very red bird with little or no grey anywhere. The back is in general a warm 
rufous-brown and the breast and underparts are heavily and broadly barred. The extreme 
grey phase is scarcely greyer than some of the red birds of other subspecies. 
Owing to the dichromatism and great individual variation in this 
species these races, except sabini, are difficult to separate and considerable 
confusion prevails amongst authorities as to their relative distribution. 
Typical birds of the umbelloides type can be found intermixed with good 
togata far east on the prairies and south near the boundary of British 
Columbia, and vice versa, togata specimens crop up in umbelloides regions. 
Probably only in the extreme ranges will the forms be found pure and 
unmistakable, and most local races can only be determined by average 
characters that leave room for wide variation in personal opinion. With 
such wide areas of overlapping it is hardly safe to be dogmatic. The 
above ranges give the present opinion of the writer based upon quite 
considerable material, but this does not agree with the American Ornitholo- 
gists’ Union Check-list which extends togata west only to Manitoba and 
extends umbelloides over the prairies and southern British Columbia, 
referring the Alaska and Yukon birds to yukonensis . 
The Ruffed Grouse is the “Partridge” of most Canadian sportsmen. 
Where it has learned its lesson of wariness, as in old centres of settlement, 
it offers probably the best sport of any of our upland birds. Lying close 
in the dense underbrush and bursting from the tangle like a miniature 
explosion, attaining full speed almost instantly, and hurtling away in the 
shadowy aisles of the bush, it tests the alertness and the skill of the finest 
marksman. However, all birds have not learned the lessons so necessary 
to existence and shooting Ruffed Grouse in the west is a severe test of 
sportsmanlike ideals. Too often it degenerates into pot-hunting and 
shooting on the ground or from trees. Such methods may fill the bag but 
are no more sportsmanlike than killing poultry with an ax. 
The Ruffed Grouse is a bird of the bush and is seldom seen away 
from timber. Through the prairies it is to be found in most of the larger 
poplar bluffs and in the wooded valleys of the rivers. Its drumming is a 
sound well known to all frequenters of the woods. It is a series of reverber- 
ating throbs made by rapidly beating wings and has a peculiar all-pervading 
intensity that makes the direction of its origin difficult to locate. The 
beats begin slowly with measured frequency, gradually increasing in speed 
until at the end of perhaps five seconds they run into each other and die 
away in a confused whir. The male is usually strutting on a favourite 
fallen log when he pauses to drum. During the drumming the bird dis- 
plays all his ornaments — tail, crest, and ruff — and his wings are lost to 
sight in a haze of speed. Two explanations of the sound are advanced, 
one that the wings are struck together over the back and the other that 
they are brought against the sides to produce the beat. The sound of the 
bird as it suddenly rises to wing, rapidly beating the air, has a quality 
similar to that of the drumming and it would seem that the beating of the 
