RUFFED GROUS. 
661 
their leafy roosts. By this system of indiscriminate extir- 
pation, they are now greatly thinned throughout the more 
populous parts of the Union; and sell in Philadelphia 
and New York from 75 cents to a dollar apiece. The 
common price of these birds, decidedly, as I think, with 
Audubon, superior in flavor to the Pinnated Grous, is, in 
the market of Boston, from 40 to 50 cents the pair, show- 
ing how much more abundant the species is in the rocky 
regions of New England than in any other part of Amer- 
ica. Deleterious effects have sometimes occurred from 
eating this game, supposed to arise from their feeding 
on the buds of the broad-leaved Kalmia ; yet most persons 
eat them with safety at all seasons of the year, even 
when these kinds of buds have been found almost filling 
the stomach. 
The length of this species is about 18 inches, alar extent 2 feet. 
Head, neck, and crest, black and pale chesnut in spots and bars. Low- 
er part of the back and rump dusky, the feathers broadly terminated 
with chesnut and grey, mottled with dusky, a roundish paler spot to- 
wards the ends of the feathers. The black ruff presenting violet re- 
flections ; coverts of the wings more mottled and rufous, a number of 
the tertials, with conspicuous oblong whitish-brown spots on the outer 
webs only \ primaries pale dusky, the inner webs brownish-white with 
darkish spots ; 4th primary longest, long axillary feathers white with 
grey bars. Throat pale rufous, with dusky spots below the feathers 
with pale rufous and grey bars, and broad white tips ; downy vent 
feathers appearing nearly white ; the lower tail-coverts pale rufous 
with inverse arrow-heads of white. The flanks most distinctly bar- 
red. Feet and bill pale livid brown. Iris hazel. In many birds the 
tail is almost wholly grey ; in others ferruginous, and the general 
plumage brighter brown. — In Audubon’s bird, much brighter than 
they ever occur in New England $ the axillary feathers are said to 
be light chesnut only. 
56 
