Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/349

GROUSE. pounds, is a shining bluish black, with a conspicuous white bar on the wings, and a mixture of black and white on the legs; there is a piece of bare scarlet skin over the eye; the outer feathers on each side of the tail are elongated and curve outward, giving it a very peculiar appearance. The female, called ‘grayhen,’ is of a rust-color, darkest on the upper parts, everywhere barred and mottled with a darker color; the tail is straight and even at the end. The young males resemble the females in plumage. It is a gregarious bird, the different sexes, however, in winter generally keeping in flocks by themselves; and, where they are well protected, they often venture into old turnip and stubble fields to feed.

. This, the ordinary ‘grouse’ of Great Britain, the shooting of which, beginning on August 12th, is so important a part of the British sportsman's year, is, properly speaking, a, and is described under that title.

or ‘.’ The best-known American grouse is the bird called ‘partridge’ in the North and ‘pheasant’ in the South, but it is properly the ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus). This familiar and highly prized game-bird, the flesh of which is incomparably superior to that of any other grouse, is found throughout North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Virginia and northern Georgia to Alaska. It is nearly a foot and a half long, and the plumage is handsomely variegated with gray, red-brown, and black. The tail is composed of eighteen feathers, and is crossed near its tip by a broad band of black or brown. On each side of the neck is a tuft of broad, glossy black feathers. These grouse live in woodland, where their nests are made on the ground at the base of a tree or shrub. The eggs are buff-colored, and a dozen, more or less, are laid. (See Colored Plate of accompanying this article.) The hazel grouse (Bonasa betulina) of Europe and Asia is a nearly allied species.

One characteristic of this species—its ‘drumming’—is known to almost every one, yet the method of it is widely misunderstood. The sound is produced by the male only, and is most frequent and vigorous in the spring, when it may be regarded as a challenge to other cocks and for the entertainment of the hens; but as it is heard also in summer, and especially in autumn, it cannot be wholly a sexual expression. It may be only an expression of vigor. The manner in which the long, muffled roll, resounding to a great distance through the woods, is produced, was long a puzzle, or most fancifully explained. It was at first supposed to be a vocal effort, whence comes the generic name Bonasa (from bonasus, a bull). The true explanation is that the bird sits crosswise upon the chosen log, resting upon the back of the tarsi, its tail spread horizontally, and its head drawn back. “The wings are then raised and stiffened, and drumming commences by a slow, hard stroke with both wings downward and forward; but they are stopped before they touch the body. The rapidity of this motion is increased after the first few beats, when the wings move so fast that only a semicircular haze over the bird is visible, the rapid vibration causing the rolling noise with which the sound terminates.” So says Henshaw, and Coues and other field ornithologists confirm the statement.

. The Eastern prairie-chicken, or pinnated grouse (Tympanuchus Americanus), is a trifle larger than the ruffed grouse. The general color of the plumage is rufous, with bars and crossings of black; the tail is short and rounded. The male has necktufts of narrow feathers, the largest of which are five inches long; he is more remarkably adorned with two loose pendulous wrinkled patches of skin extending along the sides of the neck for two-thirds of its length, capable of inflation with air, and when inflated resembling in bulk, color, and surface middle-sized oranges. This grouse chiefly inhabits dry open districts, from northwestern Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky westward to central Kansas and the Dakotas. It was at one time abundant on the Western prairies, but has always become rare as a district has become cultivated and populous, notwithstanding laws enacted for its preservation. It has almost disappeared from the State of Kentucky, where it was at one time so extremely abundant that children were constantly employed to prevent its depredations in the cultivated fields, and multitudes were shot and trapped merely to be thrown away. It congregates in flocks in winter, which break up into smaller parties in spring. The males have many combats at the approach of the breeding season. Their voice is a low ‘tooting’ or ‘booming.’ They strut, after the manner of turkey-cocks, with wings let down to the ground, and neck-feathers erected. Certain spots, known as ‘scratching-places,’ seem to be specially appropriated for their displays and combats, and there considerable numbers often meet about daybreak and disperse again after the sun is up. The food of the pinnated grouse consists of seeds, berries, the buds of trees and bushes, insects, and the like.

A very closely allied species, the American heath-hen (Tympanuchus cupido), formerly dwelt in favorable localities in the Middle States and southern New England, Long Island and Cape Cod were its strongholds. It was long confounded with the more widely distributed prairie-chicken, and is now extinct, except a small band on Nantucket Island, which is dwindling away in spite of such protection as can be given them. In 1890 less than 200 were living on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, and in 1900 it was thought that less than 100 remained. See .

The ‘prairie-chicken’ of the Northwest is more strictly to be called sharp-tailed grouse (Pediocætes phasianellus), of which there is a northern and a southern race. It is easily distinguished by the extra long middle pair of tail feathers and the darker plumage—clear dusky black above, with no buff about the head. The back is variegated with transverse zigzags of yellowish brown, and there are many white spots on the wings; below, the plumage is white, thickly marked with triangular spots of drab. The sexes are alike. In the southernmost parts of their range they associate with the prairie-chicken, and vary their habits northward only as their environment changes. The northern variety extends from the Saskatchewan Valley to the borders of the Arctic regions.

. This species (Centrocerous urophasianus), called in old books ‘cock-of-the-plains,’ is a very large grouse which inhabits the sage-brush districts of the Western United States, feeding upon the bitter buds and leaves so that its flesh is inedible to civilized palates, though consumed by the Indians, who formerly