(Tail forked and lyre-shaped ..................................Lyrurus, Sw.
Tail cuneated ; wings long, pointed; hind toe 1
very small or n on e............................................J /Syrrhaptes, 111.
Tail cuneated, scansorial; wings very short . . Centrocercus, Sw.
As the typical sub-genus, in perfect groups, always contains species representing
higher assemblages, we consider the Ruffed Grouse in that light; while
the birds composing the genus Pterocles of M. Temminck appear to us no other
than aberrant species of Syrrhaptes*. This latter group obviously represents the
Quails (Coturnix) (which belong to the true Partridges), and the genus Ortygis,
ill., of the sandy deserts of the Old World.—Sw.
[122.] 1. T e t r a o u m b e l l u s . (Linn.) Ruffed Grouse.
Ge n u s , Tetrao, L in n . Sw ain s. Typical group, 1, Sw ains.
Ruffed Heathcock. E dwards, pi. 248; young or female.
Tetrao umbellus et togatus. L in n . Syst., Ed. x. F o bs t. Phil. Trans., lxii., p. 393.
Ruffed Grous. P e n n . Arct. Zool., ii., p. 301, No. 179. W il s ., vi., p. 45, pi. 49.
Tetrao umbellus. Sa b . Frankl. Joum., p. 679. B onap. Syn., No. 205.
Puspusquew, Cb.e e s. White Flesher and Pheasant, A n glo -A m e b ica n s.
This very handsome Grouse exists as far north as the fifty-sixth parallel, and,
according to the American naturalists, ranges southwards to the Gulf of Mexicof.
It is very plentiful on the banks of the Saskatchewan, where it frequents the
horse-paths and cleared spaces about the forts. In winter, when the ground is
covered with snow, it perches, in flocks of ten or twelve, on trees; but in summer
it passes most of its time on the ground. A flock may be approached without
difficulty; and several birds may be successively shot from the same tree, without
exciting alarm in the survivors, provided the lowest are marked off first. When
once disturbed, they fly, like most of the Grouse, with a loud whirring sound,
* There can be no donbt regarding the analogical relations of Lyrurus tetrix, Sw., (the European Black Cock,) and
the Centrocercus urophasianus, Sw., subsequently described ; but we feel considerable doubt on the value of these
types. This uncertainty always attends the investigation of imperfect groups. Syrrhaptes, however, is clearly a
tenuirostral type ; and, therefore, either Lyrwrus and Centrocercus are the fissirostral and scansorial sub-genera, or
they are the first modifications of form representing those groups in the sub-genus Tetrao. In the latter case, there
would consequently be two sub-genera undiscovered : a supposition we cannot at present entertain.—Sw.
f Mr. Drummond procured specimens on the sources of the Peace River, in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains,
which do not differ from those killed on the Saskatchewan. Mr. Douglas, however, found a variety at the same placé,
which was a third smaller, had greyer plumage and a shorter ruffle. Further observations, he thinks, may prove it
to be a distinct species, which he proposes to designate Tetrao umbellotdes.—Linn. Trans., xvi., p. 148.
very swiftly, and generally to a considerable distance before alighting. The male,
in spring, makes a very singular, loud noise, resembling the quick roll of a drum,
which can be heard at a great distance, and is produced by rapid strokes of the
wings. It is a very pleasant sight, on a fine sunny day, to observe this bird
struttino- about like a Turkey-cock, his wings drooping, tail erected, and ruffs
displayed, showing off his finery to the females, who lie hid in the neighbourhood.
The flesh of the Ruffed Grouse is very white and tender, but rather insipid.
DESCRIPTION
Of a male, killed May 4, on the Saskatchewan plains.
Colour.—Back, rump, and upper tail coverts chestnut-brown, motded and finely undulated
with blackish-brown ; the broad tips and a cordiform central mark on each feather pale
grey Back of the neck, scapulars, and wing coverts having the same colours, but the grey
tips very narrow, the blackish-brown in large blotches, and, instead of central marks, stapes
along the shafts of orange-brown and brownish-white. Top and sides of the head, the
tertiaries, and outer edges .of the secondaries, mottled with the same. Eye stape from the
nostrils whitish. Shoulder tufts velvet-black, glossed with dark-green. Qmifs liver-brown
the outer webs barred near the base and mottled towards the tips with cream-yellow. Tad
grey,-finely undulated, and also crossed by about nine narrow bars and abroad subterm.na
one of blackish-brown. Under plumage .-throat and breast yellowish-brown, hefty and vent
brownish-white; all remotely barred, but most broadly on the sides of the belly, with blackis -
brown, which also forms a band across the upper part of the breast between the ruffs. Inner
wing coverts and axillaries clove-brown, barred and tipped with white. Bill and nails dark
horn-colour.—A male, killed at the same time with the preceding, and of equa dimensions
shows more of the chestnut or orange-brown in its plumage, and the ground colour of its tail
is yellowish-brown, the extreme tips and a bar next the broad subterminal dark one bemg
grey -Females have less of the blackish-brown colour; the shoulder tufts are orange-brown
instead of black ; and the subterminal bar on the tail chestnut-coloured. In the young b.rds
the oranqe-brown is the prevailing tint of colour*. . , ,
F orm - A short crest on the top of the head: a fringed comb over the eye in the male.
Shoulder tufts consisting of about fifteen fan-shaped feathers. Fourth qudl the longest,
slightly exceeding the third and fifth; Tail fan-shaped, of eighteen feathers, the central pair
more than half an inch longer than the outer ones: the individual feathers nearly square at
the end. Tarsus feathered more than half way down anteriorly, and about half an inch
lower posteriorly. All tfie toes strongly pectinated.
. After a careful comparison of the specimens of Mr. Douglas's Tetrao Suita«, deposited in the Edinburgh Museum,
they appeared to me to differ in no respect from the ymnq of Tetrao u n le llu s and the characters by wh.ch he distm-
I S w « ^ 0, 3 u te ! * rs ? l™ & 'corfflmibus, naehi alisque Uneis femigmeo-flae^abiomme alb. a__j.rt.f.n m itv rn .DougL.. Linn. T r a n s xvi.. p. 137-