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NEW YORK, THURSDAY, DEC. 18, 1873. 


Volume I, Number 19, 
103 Fulton Street. 

Lite CRON ’S CHILDREN: 
RSS shes 
HUNTSMAN, bearing his gun afield, 
Went whistling merrily; 
When he heard the blackest of black crows 
Call out from a withered tree: 
“You are going to kill the thievish birds 
And I would, if I were you; 
But you mustn’t touch my family, 
Whatever else you do!”’ 
“I’m only going to kill the birds 
That are eating up my crop; 
And if your young ones do such things, 
Be sure they’ll have to stop.” 
“Oh,” said the crow, “my children 
Are the best ones ever born; 
There isn’t one among them all 
Would steal a grain of corn.” 
“But how shall [ know which ones they are? 
Do they resemble you?” 
“Oh, no,” said the crow, ‘‘they’re the prettiest birds 
And the whitest that ever flew.” 
So off went the sportsman whistling, 
And off, too, went his gun; 
And its startling echoes never ceased 
Again till the day was done. 
And the old crow sat untroubled, 
Cawing away in her nook; 
For she said: ‘‘He’ll never kill my birds 
Since I told him how they look.” 
‘Now there’s the hawk, my neighbor, 
She’ll see what she will see, soon; 
And that, saucy, whistling blackbird 
May have to change his tune!” 
When lo! she saw the hunter 
Taking his homeward track, 
With a string of crows as long as his gun 
Hanging down his back. 
‘*Alas, alack,’’ said the mother, 
“What in the world have you done? 
You promised to spare my pretty birds. 
And you've killed them every one.” 
“Your birds,’’ said the puzzled hunter, 
“Why, I found them in my corn; 
And besides, they are black and ugly 
As any that ever were born.” 
“Get out of my sight, you stupid!”’ 
Said the angriest of crows; 
“How good and fair her children are 
There’s none but a parent knows.”’ 
“Ah! I see, I see,” said the hunter, 
“But not as you do, quite; 
It takes a mother tobe so blind 
She can’t tell black from white.” 
The Grouse and Quails of darth 
| America. 
DISCUSSED IN RELATION TO THEIR VARIATION WITH HABITAT. 
——~>———_- 
SMITHSONIAN InstrTuTION, December 4, 1873. 
The laws of climatic variation in the color and propor- 
tion of birds, as applied to the species of our country, were 
first made known by Prof. Baird, in his celebrated work 
on “The Distribution and Migration of North American 
Birds,” (American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. XLI,) 
published in 1856; and Prof. Baird’s outlines and principles 
ot laws have been the germ of more detailed discussions by 
Mr. J. A. Allen, (see Bulletin of the Museum of Comp. 
Zodl., Cambridge, II, 1871, pt. iii; pp. 186-250;) Dr. Elliott 
Cones, (see Proc. Phila. Acad., and American Naturalist, 
vol. VII, July, 1873,) and the author of the present article, 
(see Am. Jour, of Science and Arts, Dec., 1872, and Jan., 
1873, and Am. Nat., vol. VII, Sept. 1873.) These laws of 
variation with climate, so far as they bear upon the North 
American Grouse and Partridges, I shall repeat in sub- 
stance here; premising that they all originated with Prof. 
Baird. 1. Birds from the middle, open regions of the Uni- 
ted States, as the arid plains andthe great Basin, have 
Puesm Cary. 



lighter, grayer colors than those of the States from the fer- 
tile prairies of the Mississippi valley to the Atlantic coast; 
if the plumage has dark bars or streaks, these are nar- 
rower, and dilute in tint; brown tints become more gray- 
ish, rufous tints more buff, and the latter color white; at 
the same time the bird becomes slenderer, and the feet 
weaker; while these differences are often accompanied by 
a proportionate increase in the length of the tail. 
2. Inthe moist, densely wooded regions of the Pacific 
coast, from the red-wood forests of the coast of California, 
northward, the colors are darker and the pattern of the 
markings less distinct than in the birds of the same species 
in the Atlantic States; the contrast with those o! the cen- 
tral regions being still greater. Rufous tints become cas- 
toneous, the latter becomes sooty; ash becomes overspread 
with a smoky brown coat, or deepens into sooty plumbeous. 
In proportion as the dark markings intensify in color they 
also increase in extent, to the contraction of the lighter 
ones. An enlargement of the bill, particularly a tendency 
to be longer, also usually accompanies this darkening of 
the colors. 
3. Birds bred in the high north are larger, in direct pro- 
portion to the latitude, than those bred at a far southern 
point. 
4, Birds bred in South Florida have absolutely larger 
bills than the otherwise larger individuals of the same 
species born in the north. 
The preceding laws cover the chief regional variations in 
our grouse and partridges; and in order to show the rela- 
tion which they bear to the races named elsewhere, I shall 
describe the latter more in detail. First, as to the ‘‘quails,” 
(Ortye virgintanus.) Taking for convenience the quails of 
the New England States as the normal standard, we can 
trace them from this point, their northeastern limit of dis- 
tribution, towards the regions of extreme climatic differ- 
entation, only in two directions, viz.: southward to Cuba, 
through the Atlantic States, and south-westward to Texas, 
through Kansas. Proceeding in either direction, we note 
that as we go southward the birds gradually get smaller; 
and that this change takes place in faster ratio and more 
abruptly in the Mississippi Valley than along the Atlantic 
States, for in Southern Illinois the quails much more nearly 
approach, both in size, relative proportion of different 
parts, and in colors, those of Florida, than do those from a 
corresponding locality on the Atlantic coast, as for instance, 
Washington city or Norfolk. This is probably the result 
of greater humidity, greater luxuriance of vegetation, and 
greater warmth of climate. Onthe Alleghany ranges in 
the same latitude, the quails are like those of the lowlands 
in New England. In Cuba the smallest quails are found, 
and with this extreme diminution of size is an increased 
intensity and extent of the black markings of the plumage, 
n accordance with a law pointed out by Mr. Allen, to the 
effect that colors intensify and dark markings increase in 
extent to the southward. Owing to its extreme differenta- 
tion, the Cuban quail was named Ortya Cubanensis by Mr. 
Gould, but from the fact that the quails from South Flori- 
da are just intermediate between those from Cub4 and 
those from Middle States, leads us to call it O. Virginianus 
var. Cubanensis. The Floridian bird has been named var. 
Floridanus by Dr. Coues, (see Key to North American 
Birds,) but it is a question whether a name founded upon 
one extreme differentation can be allowed to stand. 
From the Eastern States westward to the limit of the 
wooded region, the colors of the quails do not show any 
appreciable difference, until the extreme southern portion 
of Illinois is reached; there the colors as well as the size 
show a marked approach to the Florida style. On the 
prairies, however, the quails are appreciably grayer, with 
less rufous and black than those of the heavily wooded 
sections of the same region; and as we go westward we 
find this grayness gradually increasing until in Middle 
Kansas the difference from those of the prairies of Illinois 
is very strongly marked; andif we still trace the species 
southward, we find that the maximum grayness, and mini- 
mum amount of rufous tints, is reached in Texas, The 
Texan quail was described in 1853, by Mr. Lawrence, as 
more slender, jnst as do the quails. 
Ortyx texanus, the connecting links not then being known. 
But now, since we have become aware of the gradual pro- 
gression between the two extremes as noted above, we call 
the light grayish colored quails of the Southwestern plains 
O. Virginianus var. texanus. 
The American grouse likewise vary in colors and size, 
with habitat, but they being of more northern distribution, 
other laws are the agencies in working their modifications. 
Taking first the ruffed or drumming grouse, (Bonasa umbel- 
lus,) we observe that every individual killed in the south of 
Maryland on the Atlantic coast and anywhere in the Mis- 
sissippi Valley, has the tail of an ochraceous rufous color, 
in bars of several shades; the prevailing tints on the body 
are also rufous. As soon as we go into the Alleghany 
mountains we begin to find a few with tails gray or inclin- 
ing to be gray, and in proportion as we go northward the 
number of individuals having gray tails increases, and the 
grayness becomes at the same time more decided. In the 
New England States apparently every individual of the 
species has a gray tail. But all the birds of the eastern 
United States have rufous the predominant color of the 
body. Canadian specimens are like New England ones, 
but those from the interior of British America, and thence 
to the Yukon river in Alaska, are entirely gray, with little, 
if any, tinge of rufous anywhere on the plumage. Speci- 
mens from the Rocky Mountains as far southwest as the 
species extends, are like these northern examples, for the 
high altitude of their habitat is equivalent to the high lati- 
tude of that of the others. This gray form is the Tetrao 
wmbelloides of Douglass, or the B. wmbellus var. wmbelloides of 
Baird. In the densely wooded region of the Pacific coast, 
in Oregon, Washington Territory, and British Columbia, 
the ruffed grouse are much more like those of the South- 
ern States and Mississippi Valley than any other region, 
having like them rufous tails; but the colors are much 
darker and deeper, a rich shade of ferrugineous, mixed with 
chestnut, prevailing. Going from the coast back into the 
mountains, this form, (the Tetrao sabinei, Douglass, B. wm- 
bellus var. sabiuet, Baird,) grades: directly*with var. wmbelloi- 
des, first acquiring a dark gray tail and gradually becoming 
lighter and more ashey toward the interior range. 
In the Rocky Mountains of British America, the Canace 
canadensis has also a representative race, the var, Sranklini, 
in which the tail is entirely black instead of tipped with 
rufous; and in the same localities the C. Obscura has a race 
(var. richardson?) differing in exactly the same particulars 
from the var. obscura, It is not known with certainty that 
the O. canadensis extends to,the Pacific coast; but the C. 
obscura does, and the race found in company with Bonasp 
umbellus var. sabinet differs from the var. obscura of the 
ranges inhabited by the B. wmbellus var. umbellioides in dark- 
er, more sooty colors, and reddish wash over the back. The 
latter constitutes the geographical race var. fuligniosa, The 
Orcortyx pictus is represented on the Sierra Nevada, or the 
interior range of California, by the var. plwmifera, in which 
the gray tints are lighter, clearer, and more bluish than in 
the race of the coast range, (var pictws,) in which the ashey 
tints are much obscured by a smoky olive wash. The pin- 
nated grouse, or prairie hen, of the Texan plains, (ewpidonia 
cupido var. pallidicinctus Ridgeway,) differs from that of the 
Illinois and Louisiana prairies, in being lighter colored and 
Of the remaining 
species of grouse there are left only the sage cock, or cock 
of the plains, (centrocercus wrophasinaus) the sharp-tailed 
grouse, (pediocaetes phasianellus,) and the ptarmigans, lagopu 
albus, L. mutus var. rupestris, and L, leucurus. The sage 
cock and the [ptarmigas being limited each to one geo- 
graphical province, no climatic races occur; but the sharp- 
tailed grouse, which has a very extended distribution, pre- 
sents two well-marked forms. The var. phasianellus ex- 
tends over.the entire western and middle portions of British 
America, south to the northern shore of Lake Superior, on 
the east, and British Columbia on the west; northward, it 
extends to the shores of the Arctic Ocean. In this form the 
colors are simply white and blackish brown, the latter pre- 
vailing; while the toes are almost concealed by the long 
hair-like feathers. The var. columbianus extends south- 
