SPOTTED GROUSE. 
209 
When much disturbed, like their kindred species, they 
are apt to resort to trees, where, by using* the precaution 
of always shooting* the lowest, the whole of the terrified 
flock may be brought down to the last bird. 
The spotted grouse is smaller than the common par- 
tridge or pheasant, being but fifteen inches in length. 
The bill is black, seven-eighths of an inch long. The 
general colour of the plumage is made up of black and 
gray, mingled in transverse wavy crescents, with a few 
of grayish rufous on the neck. The small feathers 
covering the nostrils, are deep velvety black. The 
feathers may all be called black as to the ground colour, 
and blackish plumbeous at the base ; on the crown, 
upper sides of the head above the eye, and the anterior 
portion of the neck, they have each two gray bands or 
small crescents, and tipped with a third; these parts, 
owing to the gray margin of the feathers being very 
broad, appear nearly all gray; these longer feathers of 
the lower part of the neck above, and between the 
shoulders, are more broadly and deeply black, each with 
a reddish band, and gray only at tip ; the lowest have 
even two reddish bands, which pass gradually into 
grayish ; a few of the lateral feathers of the neck are 
almost pure white; all the remaining feathers of the 
upper parts of the body have two grayish bands, besides 
a slight tip of the same colour; some of the lowest and 
longest having even three of these bands, besides the 
tip. The very long upper tail-coverts are well distin- 
guished, not only by their shape, but also by their 
colours, being black brown, thickly sprinkled on the 
margins with grayish rusty, and a pretty well defined 
band of that colour towards the point, then a narrow 
one of deep black, and are broadly tipped with whitish 
gray, more or less pure in different specimens; their 
shafts, also, are brownish rusty. The sides of the head 
beneath the eyes, together with the throat, are deep 
black, with pure white spots, the white lying curiously 
upon the feathers, so as to form a band about the 
middle, continued along the shaft, and spreading at the 
point ; but the feathers being small on these parts, the 
VOL. IV. o 
