272 
GROUSE 
31. Family Tetraonid^. Grouse. (Fig. 44.) 
The Grouse, numbering some twenty-five species, inhabit the north- 
ern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Two species of Ptarmigan are 
found throughout the Arctic regions, while the remaining species are 
about equally divided between the Old World and the New. After the 
nesting season they commonly gather in ‘coveys’ or bevies. In some 
species, these bevies unite or ‘pack,’ forming large flocks. As a rule, 
they are terrestrial, but may take to trees when flushed, while some 
species habitually call and feed in trees. They are game birds par 
excellence , and, trusting to the concealment afforded by their protective 
coloration, attempt to avoid detection by hiding rather than by flying, 
or, in sportsman’s phraseology, “lie well to a dog.” Their flight is rapid 
and accompanied by a startling whirr, caused by the quick strokes of 
their concave, stiff-feathered wings. Though not, as a rule, migratory, 
or given to extended flights, their great weight as compared with their 
wing-expanse, and the necessity of getting under way at once, requires 
great strength, hence the exceptional development of the breast muscles 
which constitute most of the edible portion of these universally esteemed 
birds. 
Many species of this family are polygamous, and their strutting, 
dancing or actual fighting, tootings, hootings, boomings, or drummings 
make them among the most interesting of birds during their periods 
of courtship display. 
The young, as with all Gallinaceous birds, are hatched thickly 
covered with down, usually of a pronounced pattern, and leave the 
nest soon after birth, generally under the care of the female alone. 
Like the young of Terns, they instinctively squat at the warning note 
of the parent, which then flutters painfully before one, using every 
possible effort to draw one from the vicinity of her chicks. (For special 
literature, see under preceding family.) 
298. Canaehites canadensis canadensis {Linn.). Hudsonian 
Spruce Partridge. Male indistinguishable from the male of C. c. canace; 
female similar to female of canace but less rusty. 
Range . — Boreal forest region from the e. base of the Rocky Mts. w. of 
Edmonton, Alberta, e. to Lab. Peninsula; also a disconnected area in 
Alaska from Bristol Bay to Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound. 
298g. C. c. canace {Linn.). Canada Spruce Partridge. Ad. <?. — Upper- 
parts barred with black, ashy, gray, and grayish brown; tertials and wing- 
coverts irregularly marked with fuscous and grayish brown; tail black, 
tipped with rufous; black throat separated from black breast by a broken 
circular band of black and white and a band of same color as back of neck; 
sides friottled with black and grayish brown, ends of the feathers with white 
shaft streaks; rest of underparts black, broadly tipped with white, except 
on middle of lower breast; bare skin above eye bright red in life. Ad. 9. — 
Upperparts barred with black and pale rufous and tipped with ashy gray; 
tail black, mottled and tipped with rufous; throat and upper breast barred 
with pale rufous and black; sides mottled with black and pale rufous, . ends 
of feathers with white shaft streaks ; rest of underparts black, broadly tipped 
