196 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
stubs and fallen branches in smoke so thick that they were frequently 
lost to view. In the vicinity of every fire observed, Hawks were present, 
and as many as twenty individuals were noted at one time” (1917, p. 
209). 
Additional Literature.—Brewster, William, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zook, 
Harvard College, LXVI, 362-364, 1925. 
GALLINACEOUS BIRDS: Order Galliformes 
The Gallinaceous birds, of which the barnyard fowl is the familiar 
type, obtain much of their hard food by scratching it from the ground 
and so have short, stout, convex bills, stout legs, and blunt claws, 
the front toes commonly slightly webbed at base. The crop is large and 
as seeds and nuts form a great part of their food, the gizzard is very 
muscular—in all but the Sage Grouse whose food does not require it— 
lined with a tough, almost horny coating, peculiarly adapted to grinding. 
They are chiefly terrestrial and some of them typically polygamous. 
References.—Dwight, Jonathan, Auk, XVII, 34-51; 143-166, 1900 (molt).— 
Grinnell, G. B., American Game Bird Shooting, 1910.— Job, H. K., Bull. 2, Nat. 
Assoc. Audubon Soc. (propagation).— Judd, S. D., Biol. Surv., Bull. 21, U. S. Dept. 
Agr., 1905 (quail); Biol. Surv., Bull. 24, U. S. Dept. Agr., 1905 (grouse and wild 
turkeys). 
GROUSE, PTARMIGANS, etc.: Family Tetraonidae 
In the Grouse, while the head is feathered, the male generally has a 
strip of naked skin over the eye and sometimes also a patch of dis¬ 
tensible skin on the sides of the neck, which adds volume to the mating 
notes; and in some species there are lengthened or otherwise modified 
neck feathers used in courtship display. As they are mainly residents 
of the cold-winter Boreal Zone, the legs and feet are more or less feath¬ 
ered, the feathering extending to the claws in the Arctic-Alpine Ptar¬ 
migan; and when the toes are naked they have horny fringelike processes, 
shed in midsummer, that enable the birds to hold themselves up as if 
with snowshoes on snow. The plumage of those of the family that live 
in shaded forests or on open plains is of subdued grays or browns, but the 
Ptarmigan, which live above timberline throughout the year, change 
from mixed rock colors to pure white for protection during the winter 
snows. 
DUSKY GROUSE: Dendragapus obscurus obscurus (Say) 
Plate 17 
Description. — Male: Length about 20-23 inches, wing 9.4-10, tail 8, weight 
about 2to 3J-^ pounds. Female: Length about 17.5-19 inches, wing about 8.7, 
tail 6. Legs feathered to toes. Adult male-: Head with orange comb over eye and 
neck with inflatable air sacs, flesh color changing to purple red in the breeding season; 
upperparts dusky or bluish slate, “finely waved and venniculated in zigzag” with gray and 
