DUSKY GROUSE. 
91 
Ruffed Grouse, using all the arts of that bird in counterfeiting lameness, 
^c. Female smaller than the male, lighter coloured, and wants the yellow 
warty skin upon the sides of the neck.” 
Mr. Nuttall’s notice is as follows “ The Dusky Grouse breeds in the 
shady forests of the Columbia, where we heard and saw them throughout the 
summer. The male at various times of the day makes a curious uncouth 
tooting, almost like the sound made by blowing into the bung-hole of a 
barrel, boo , wh’h, wh’h, wh’h, wh’h, the last note descending into a kind of 
echo. We frequently tried to steal on the performer, but without success, 
as, in fact, the sound is so strangely managed that you may imagine it to 
come from the left or right indifferently. They breed on the ground, as 
usual, and the brood keep together nearly all winter. The Ruffed Grouse 
also breeds here commonly, and I one day found the nest concealed near a 
fallen log, but it was at once forsaken after this intrusion, though I did not 
touch the eggs.” 
From the examination of specimens in my possession, I am persuaded 
that this species, like Tetrao Cupido, has the means of inflating the sacs of 
bare skin on the sides of the neck, by means of which, in the breeding 
season, are produced the curious sounds above described. 
Tetrao obscurus, Say, Long’s Exped. 
Tetrao obscurus, Bonap. Syn., p. 127. 
Dusky Grouse, Tetrao obscurus, Bonap. Amer. Orn., vol. iii. pi. 18. 
Tetrao obscurus, Dusky Grouse, Swains. & Rich. F. Amer., vol. ii. p. 344. 
Dcsky Grouse, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 666. 
Dusky Grouse, Tetrao obscurus , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 446. 
Male, 22, wing 9i. Female, 19 i, wing 9. 
From the eastern spurs of the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia river, 
and northward to Hudson’s Bay. Abundant. Resident. 
Adult male. 
Bill short, robust, slightly arched, rather obtuse, the base covered by 
feathers. Upper mandible with the dorsal line convex and declinate, the 
ridge convex, the sides convex, the edges sharp and overlapping, the tip 
thin-edged and rounded ; lower mandible with the angle long and wide, 
the dorsal line ascending and convex, the ridge Broad, the sides convex, 
the edges inflected, the tip rounded. Nostrils in the fore part of the large 
and feathered nasal depression, roundish. 
Head small, ovate ; neck of ordinary length ; body large and full. Feet 
stout, of moderate length; tarsus short, feathered; toes stout; the first very 
small, the lateral about equal, and much shorter than the tlii; d ; the anterior 
toes connected by basal scaly membranes, partially covered with feathers ; 
