127 
GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 
GENUS BONASA. 
General Characters. — Head with a short crest; sides of neck with a 
black or brown ruff of soft, broad-webbed feathers; tail nearly as long as 
wing, fan-shaped. 
KEY TO SPECIES. 
1. Upper parts dark rusty brown .sabini, p. 128. 
T. Upper parts not dark rusty brown. 
2. Upper parts, including tail, gray .... umbelloides, p. 128. 
2'. Upper parts gray and brown, tail sometimes ochraceous. 
togata, p. 127. 
300a. Bonasa umbellus togata (Linn.). Canadian Ruffed 
Grouse. 
Similar to B. u. umbelloides , but darker; upper parts mixed with gray, 
sometimes mostly gray ; under parts more heavily marked with brown, flanks 
barred with dark brown or black ; tail brown or gray. 
Distribution. — Resident in the Canadian zone forests of the northeastern 
United States, British Provinces, and eastern parts of Oregon and Wash¬ 
ington. 
Nest and eggs similar to those of umbelloides. 
Food. — Largely buds, leaves, berries, fungus, seeds, and nuts. 
While common in its various forms over much of the northwestern 
United States and the Rocky Mountain region, the ruffed grouse is 
less famed as a game bird in the west than in the east, probably 
because other and larger grouse claim more attention. Wherever 
flushed its quick flight and long, black-banded tail distinguish it 
from all others of the family, while a strutting old male, stepping 
daintily along a trail in the shady forest with black epaulettes 
slightly lifted and tail half spread, has a grace and elegance found 
in no other North American grouse. 
Purely a bird of the forest, it relies largely upon cover and its 
mottled coat for protection, and when flushed, if possible puts a 
tree between itself and the hunter as it whirrs away to light out of 
sight on the far side of a gray trunk. There it draws itself up and 
stands as rigid as a branch. How well it knows how far to trust 
itself, breaking away at the first intelligent gleam from the pur¬ 
suer’s eye! But with all the skill and untamable wildness of the 
grouse, it needs rigid protection from the day it leaves the eggshell. 
A brood of bob-tailed young buzzing from the grass up on to the 
branches are easily potted, and in winter a flock noisily picking 
birch and alder-buds in the treetops are sadly exposed to the con¬ 
scienceless hunter below. 
While the snow is on the ground the birds feed mainly on buds, 
and usually have a warm bed under the snow. Before the snow is 
all gone in spring, each male selects his drumming ground, — a log, 
a rock, or merely an open spot of ground, — and begins his drum- 
