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Intei'ior of British North America . 
crossed the watershed of the Rocky Mountains, and that, too, by 
a pass hitherto untrodden by any white man. I was some dis¬ 
tance ahead of my party, and on foot, having, as the descent was 
rather steep, tied up the reins and stirrups and allowed my 
riding-horse to follow along with the pack-animals; and as I 
proceeded along the Indian path, a Grouse rose and perched 
itself on a projecting branch. My double rifle being over my 
shoulder, a bullet through its body brought the bird to the 
ground. It was in the female plumage, 13f in. in length, 7 in. 
in the wing, with a hazel eye, and bright patch of vermilion over 
it. I was at once struck with a certain dissimilarity to the 
Canada Grouse, a bird I knew well; and this was further 
strengthened by finding, when it came to be cooked, that the 
flesh was white, while any one who has lived in Canada or the 
north-eastern States knows that the Spruce Partridge is dis¬ 
tinguished from the “ white-flesher”—the Birch Partridge or 
Ruffed Grouse (Bonasia umbellus )—by the darkness of its flesh, 
which has usually a very turpentine flavour, thought to be pro¬ 
duced by the habit of feeding on spruce-leaves. On the 24th, 
while still in the mountains, one of my men shot a male; it was 
not, however, in quite perfect plumage. Its breast was black, 
with white spots at the ends of some of the feathers; throat 
nearly black, with an indistinct white line surrounding it; and 
there was not a sign of any colour but black in the tail-feathers; 
over the eye was bright scarlet; length 17 in., and wing 7\: 
this bird had also been shot with ball, and therefore I did not 
preserve it. On the day following we got amongst a covey, 
and killed six of them; but they were all young, except the old 
female, which was minus her tail-feathers. They were just as 
unsuspicious and stupid as the Canada Grouse, allowing them¬ 
selves to be shot down off the trees without making any attempt 
to escape. As I was recrossing the mountains on the 3rd of 
September, I managed to procure a pretty good female specimen 
(‘Ibis/ vol. iv. p. 8). It measured 15 in. in length, and 6f in 
the wing; had the eye brown, bill dusky, and feet ash. I ob¬ 
serve that Mr. Ross does not include Franklin’s Grouse among 
the birds of the Mackenzie; and I may mention that there is an 
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