_Tetrao canadensis_, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1758, 159.—FORSTER, Phil.
Trans. LXII, 1772, 389.—SABINE, Zoöl. App. Franklin’s Exped.
683.—BONAP. Amer. Orn. III, 1830, pl. xxi, f. 2, ♀.—IB. Am. Phil.
Trans. III, N. S. 1830, 391.—RICH. F. Bor. Amer. II, 1831, 346,
pl. lxii, ♀.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 667.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834,
437; V, 1839, 563, pl. clxxvi.—IB. Birds Amer. V, 1842, 83, pl.
cclxciv.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 622.—MAYNARD, B. E. Mass. 1870, 138
(Massachusetts).—COUES, P. A. N. S. 1861, 226.—GRAY, Cat. Brit. Mus.
1867, 86.—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Chicago Ac. I, 1869, 287.—FINSCH, Abh.
Nat. Verz. III, 1872, 61. _Canace canadensis_, REICH. Av. Syst. Nat.
1851, p. xxix. Type, BONAP. Comptes Rendus, XLV, 1857, 428.—ELLIOT,
P. A. N. S. 1864, 23.—IB. Monog. Tetraon. pl. _Tetrao canace_, LINN.
Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 275. _Black Spotted Heathcock_, EDWARDS, Glean.
pl. cxviii. _Spotted Grouse_, PENNANT.
SP. CHAR. Tail of sixteen feathers. Above black. Feathers above
distinctly banded with plumbeous; beneath uniform black, with a pectoral
band of white, and white on the sides of the belly. Chin and throat
above, black. Tail with a broad brownish-orange terminal band. Length,
16.20; wing, 6.70; tail, 5.44.
_Female_ smaller, but somewhat similar; the black bars above broader,
the inner gray bars of each feather, including the tail, replaced by
broader ones of brownish-orange. The under parts have the feathers
black, barred with the brownish-orange, which, on the tips of the
belly-feathers, is pure white. The clear continuous black of the head
and breast is wanting. The scapulars, greater coverts, and sides are
streaked as in the male.
A female (No. 39,136, G. A. Boardman) from Maine differs from the above
description in having the ground of the plumage a bright orange-rufous,
the distinct bars of which are broader than the black ones; this is
probably an autumnal bird, and represents the peculiar plumage of that
season.
_Males_ vary, individually, in the extent or uniformity of the black of
the breast.
Specimens from Alaska (Nulato, Kodiak, etc.), Red River, Liard’s River
and Fort Liard, Hudson’s Bay Territory, Canada, and Maine, appear to be
absolutely identical.
The young in downy state are pale buff-yellow; the head above, with the
back and wings, pale fulvous; a black stripe on side of head (from bill
to end of auriculars), two spots on crown, and transverse crescentic
spots on back and wings, black.
HAB. Spruce forests and swamps of the Northern United States to the
Arctic seas; west nearly to Rocky Mountains.
HABITS. This bird, variously known as the Spruce or Wood Partridge,
Canada, Black, or Spotted Grouse, is found, in favorable localities,
from the Northern United States as far north as the woods extend,
to the Arctic Ocean, being found, even in midwinter, nearly to the
70th parallel. Sir John Richardson found all the thick and swampy
black-spruce forests between Canada and the Arctic Sea abounding with
this species. In winter it descends into Maine, Northern New York, and
Michigan. Its migrations are, however, only partial, as it is found in
the severest weather of midwinter, in considerable numbers, as far north
as latitude 67°. According to Mr. Douglas, west of the Rocky Mountains
it is replaced by the _T. franklini_. This bird is said to perch in
trees, in flocks of eight or ten, and is so stupid that it may be taken
by slipping a noose, fastened to the end of a stick, over its head. When
disturbed, it flies heavily a short distance, and then alights again
among the interior branches of a tree. Richardson invariably found its
crop filled with the buds of the spruce-trees in the winter, and at
that time its flesh was very dark and had a strong resinous taste. In
districts where the _Pinus banksiana_ grows it is said to prefer the
buds of that tree. In the summer it feeds on berries, which render its
flesh more palatable.
Captain Blakiston states that he has found this species as far west as
Fort Carlton, and Mr. Ross has traced it northward on the Mackenzie to
the Arctic coast.
Mr. Audubon met with it in Maine, in the vicinity of Eastport, where
they were only to be met with in the thick and tangled forests of spruce
and hackmatack. They were breeding in the inner recesses of almost
impenetrable woods of hackmatack or larches. He was informed that they
breed in that neighborhood about the middle of May, a full month sooner
than they do in Labrador. In their love-season the males are said to
exhibit many of the singular manners also noticeable in the other
members of this family. They strut before the female on the ground,
something in the manner of the common domestic Turkey-cock, occasionally
rising in a spiral manner above her in the air; at the same time, both
when on the ground and in the air, they beat their wings violently
against their body, thereby producing a peculiar drumming sound, which
is said to be much clearer than the well-known drumming of the Ruffed
Grouse. These sounds can be heard at a considerable distance from the
place where they are made.
The female constructs a nest of a bed of dry twigs, leaves, and mosses,
which is usually carefully concealed, on the ground and under low
horizontal branches of fir-trees. The number of eggs is said to vary
from eight to eighteen in number. It is imagined by the common people
that where more than ten eggs are found in the same nest they are the
product of two females, who aid each other in their charge. The eggs are
described by Audubon as of a deep fawn-color, irregularly splashed with
different tints of brown. They have but a single brood in a season, and
the young follow the mother as soon as they leave the shell.
As soon as incubation commences, the males desert the females and keep
in small flocks by themselves, removing to different woods, where they
usually become much more shy and wary than at any other season of the
year.
In their movements on the ground these birds are said to resemble our
common Quail, rather than the Ruffed Grouse. They do not jerk their
tails in the manner of the latter bird, as they walk, nor are they known
to burrow in the snow; but when they are pursued they invariably take
refuge in trees, from which they cannot be readily made to fly. When
driven from one place of refuge to another, they accompany their flight
with a few _clucks_, and those sounds they repeat when they alight.
When a flock thus alights, it may all be readily secured by a little
precaution and pains. It is said that they are so unwary and regardless
of the near presence of man, that when thus in the imagined shelter of
a tree they will permit themselves to be approached, the whole flock
shot, or even knocked down with a stick. Sometimes they may all be taken
alive, one after the other, by means of a noose affixed to the end of a
long pole.
According to Audubon, the Canada Grouse indicate the approach of rainy
weather by retiring to roost at an unusual time in the day, whenever
a storm is impending. If observed to fly up to their roost at midday,
it rarely fails to rain or snow before the evening; and if, on the
contrary, they remain busily engaged in search of food until sunset, the
night and the following morning are pretty sure to be fresh and clear.
The young of this Grouse are very strong and active from the moment
they are hatched, and are able to fly at a very early age. When in
Labrador, Mr. Audubon almost walked, by accident, upon a female Canada
Grouse, surrounded by her young brood. This was about the middle of
July. The affrighted mother, upon perceiving him, ruffled up all her
feathers in the manner of the common Hen, and advanced close to him as
if determined to defend her offspring. Her distressed condition claimed
his forbearance, and she was allowed to remain in safety. As soon as
he retired she smoothed down her plumage and uttered a tender maternal
chuck, when the little ones took to their wings with ease, though they
appeared to be not more than one week old.
Mr. Audubon found this Grouse moulting as early as the 20th of July. At
that period the young were generally already able to fly fully a hundred
yards in a single flight. They alighted on low trees and were easily
taken alive.
This Grouse feeds, in the summer, on berries of various kinds, as well
as upon the buds and leaves of several different kinds of plants and
shrubs. In the autumn they gorge themselves with the berries of the
Solomon’s Seal. At this season their flesh is much the best. In the
winter, when they feed on the buds of the hackmatack and the spruce and
firs, and also upon the leaves of the spruces, as stated by Richardson,
they have a bitter, disagreeable taste, and are hardly fit to eat.
This Grouse may be readily kept in confinement, and even made to breed
there. Mr. Thomas Lincoln, of Dennysville, fed some of them on oats, on
which food they appeared to thrive very well.
The eggs of this food vary in length from 1.75 inches to 1.68, and in
breadth from 1.22 to 1.20 inches. Eggs taken at Fort Resolution, by Mr.
Kennicott, have a ground of a deep dull cream-color, shaded with ochre.
They are of an oblong-oval shape, speckled and marked with spots of a
dark chestnut-color. In these specimens the spots are larger towards the
smaller end.
Canace canadensis, var. franklini, DOUGLAS.