THE SPOTTED OK CANADA GROUSE. 
87 
The flesh of this Grouse is dark, and fit for being eaten only when it has 
fed on berries. In winter, when it feeds on the leaves of trees and other 
plants, the flesh is quite bitter and disagreeable. 
According to Dr. Richardson, all the thick and swampy black-spruce 
forests between Canada and the Arctic Sea abound with this bird, and 
considerable numbers exist in the severest seasons as high as the 67th 
parallel. I am informed by Mr. Townsend that it is also plentiful on the 
Rocky Mountains and the plains of the Columbia, from which parts I have 
obtained specimens differing in nothing from others procured in Maine and 
Labrador. I have also compared those in the Edinburgh Museum, which 
Mr. Douglass was pleased to name Tetrao FranJclinii, with several of my own, 
and feel perfectly confident that they are all of one and the same species. 
Spotted Grouse, Tetrao Canadensis , Bonap. Amer. Orn., vol. iii. pi. 20. 
Tetrao Canadensis, Bonap. Syn., p. 127. 
Tetrao Canadensis, Spotted Grouse , Swains. <fc Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 346. 
Tetrao Franklinii, Franklin's Grouse , Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 
348. 
Spotted Grouse, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 667. 
Spotted or Canada Grouse, Tetrao ■ Canadensis , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. ii. p. 437 ; 
vol. v. p. 563. 
Male, 151, 21f, Female, 154, 21. 
Plentiful from the northern parts of New York to Labrador, as well as 
from Canada to the Arctic Sea. Columbia river. Partially migratory in 
winter. 
Adult Male. 
Bill short, robust, slightly arched, rather obtusd, the base covered by 
feathers ; upper mandible with the dorsal outline convex towards the end, 
the edges sharp and overlapping, the tip declinate ; lower mandible slightly 
convex, in its dorsal outline, the back broad and rounded, the sides sloping 
outwards, the t : p rather rounded. Nostrils basal, lateral, concealed by the 
short feathers. Head small, neck of ordinary length, body full. Feet short, 
rather small ; tarsus short, roundish, feathered ; toes scutellate above, broadly 
margined and pectinate, the anterior ones connected by a web at the base, 
the hind toe very small, the two lateral about equal, the middle one much 
longer ; claws short, arched, compressed, rather obtuse. 
Plumage compact, slightly glossed. Feathers of the head very short. 
Wings short, broad, much x’ounded and curved, the third quill longest, the 
fourth next, the second and fifth nearly equal, the first very short. Tail 
ample, of ordinary length, rounded, of sixteen broad rotundato-truncate 
feathers, having a minute mucro. 
