RUFFED GROUS. 
657 
Subgenus. — Bonasia. ( Bonap .) 
Lower portion of the tarsus, and toes naked. Tail long and 
rounded. The head adorned with a crest and ruff. The female 
nearly similar to the male ; and the plumage almost alike through- 
out the year. The flesh white. These live chiefly in thick forests 
and affect the hills and uplands. 
RUFFED GROUS. 
( Tetrao iimbellus, L. Wilson, vi. p. 45. pi. 49. [male.]) 
Sp. Charact. — Mottled; tail grey or ferruginous, of 18 feathers, 
speckled and barred with black, and with a black subterminal 
band. — Male with a ruff of broad black feathers on the sides of 
the neck. — In the female the ruff smaller, dusky -brown. 
This beautiful species of Grous, known by the name 
of Pheasant in the Middle and Western States, and by 
that of Partridge in New England, is found to inhabit 
the continent from Hudson’s Bay to Georgia, but are most 
abundant in the Northern and Middle States, where they 
often prefer the most elevated and wooded districts ; and 
at the south they affect the mountainous ranges and 
valleys which border upon, or lie within, the chains of the 
Alleghanies. They are also prevalent in the Western 
States as far as the line of the territory of Mississippi, but 
appear to be unknown to the west of that great river, 
where the Pinnated Grous is so abundant. 
Although, properly speaking, sedentary, yet at the ap- 
proach of autumn, according to Audubon, they make, in 
common with the following species, partial migrations by 
single families in quest of a supply of food, and sometimes 
even cross the Ohio in the course of their peregrinations. 
In the northern parts of New England they appear also 
to be partially migratory at the approach of winter, and 
leave the hills for lower and more sheltered situations. 
