_Tetrao obscurus_, SAY, Long’s Exped. R. Mts. II, 1823, 14.—BON. Mon.
_Tetrao_, Am. Phil. Trans. III, 1830, 391.—IB. Am. Orn. III, 1830, pl.
xviii.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 620.—SCL. P. Z. S. 1858, 1.—GRAY,
Cat. Brit. Mus. V, 1867, 86.—COOP. Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 526 (in part).
_Canace obscura_, BONAP. Comptes Rendus, XLV, 1857, 428. _Dendragapus
obscurus_, ELLIOT, P. A. N. S. 1864, 23.—IB. Monog. Tetraon. pl.
[Illustration: _Canace obscurus._]
SP. CHAR. _Male_ (19,161, Deer Creek, Neb., Feb. 13; G. H. Trook.)
Ground-color above slaty-black, but this almost completely overlaid by a
minute, transverse mottling of bluish-ash,—pale brown on scapulars and
secondaries,—mostly on terminal portion of the feathers. Scapulars with
a conspicuous shaft-streak and terminal spot of white. Terminal band
of tail sharply and abruptly defined, pure pale bluish-ash, and 1.50
inches in width. Tail slightly rounded (about .80). Lower parts fine
bluish-ashy, becoming lighter posteriorly, more plumbeous anteriorly. On
the sides of the jugulum the feathers snowy-white beneath the surface,
and this much exposed, producing a somewhat broken but conspicuous
patch. Throat white, with transverse crescentic bars of dusky; this
barred white curving upward to the auriculars, behind a uniformly
blackish malar patch; lores and post-ocular region with distinct white
spots, producing an inconspicuous stripe from the bill through the eye.
All the feathers of the lower parts margined terminally with white, this
growing broader on the flanks and crissum, the former of which have a
more brownish and mottled ground, and broad white shaft-stripes. Lining
of wing almost wholly white. Tarsi ashy-white. Length, 21.00; wing,
10.00; tail, 8.00; tarsus, 1.80; middle toe, 1.80.
_Female_ (58,636, Uintah Mountains, July 5, 1868; R. Ridgway). Somewhat
similar to male in pattern. Dusky-black above, much broken by narrow
transverse bars of yellowish-brown; these broad, regular, and sharply
defined anteriorly, posteriorly broken and mottled. Middle tail-feathers
much mottled, obscuring the ashy tip: ash beneath unbroken only on
the abdomen; the jugulum, sides, etc., having transverse bars of
yellowish-brown. Wing, 8.70; tail, 6.00.
_Young_ (58,658, Uintah Mountains, July 5, 1868; R. Ridgway). Above
yellowish-brown, the feathers with conspicuous shaft-streaks and deltoid
terminal spots of white; both webs with large, transverse, roundish
spots of black; secondaries with six bands of black and white, both
broken, however, by coarse mottlings; tail like the secondaries. Beneath
dull whitish; jugulum and sides with rounded spots of black, those
on opposite webs not joining. Head yellowish-white, crown spotted
with black; an indistinct dusky stripe over lores and upper edge of
auriculars.
HAB. Rocky Mountain region of the United States, principally south
of South Pass, and Sierra Nevada, north to Oregon and south to San
Francisco Mountains, New Mexico.
The “Dusky Grouse” figured and described by Mr. Audubon of this species,
is not the bird of Say, nor based on specimens collected by Townsend.
The figures were probably taken from the skins in possession of Mr.
Sabine, referred to by Bonaparte in American Ornithology (Vol. III,
1828, 36), which Sabine proposed to name after Richardson. Douglas, in
describing his _Tetrao richardsoni_, quotes “Sabine MSS.,” but does
not describe his specimens, and, as far as his incomplete description
goes, seems to have had the true _T. obscurus_ before him. Richardson’s
description and figure belong to the second species, the same with
Audubon’s. Wilson’s figures, in Illustrations of Zoölogy, 1831 (plates
xxx, xxxi), are taken from specimens received from Mr. Sabine, of
the same species, but in different and less perfect plumage than Mr.
Audubon’s.
HABITS. This species was first discovered and described by Say in 1820,
though its existence had previously been known to the fur-trappers.
Its food consists of various berries, and the flesh is said to be very
palatable.
Dr. Newberry pronounces this Grouse decidedly the handsomest of all
the American birds of this family; its flesh white, and fully equal to
that of the eastern Ruffed Grouse or Quail. It is said to inhabit the
evergreen forests exclusively, and to be found not uncommonly in the
Sierra Nevada, as well as in the wooded districts of the country lying
between the Sacramento Valley and the Columbia. In the Cascade Mountains
Dr. Newberry found it associated with the Ruffed Grouse, which it
resembles in habits more than any other species. When on the ground they
lie very close, flying up from your very feet as you approach them, and,
when flushed, always take to a tree, from which they cannot be dislodged
except by shooting them. In the spring the male sits motionless on a
branch of a pine or a spruce, and utters a booming call, which, by its
remarkable ventriloquial powers, seems rather to mislead than to direct
the sportsman, unless he is experienced in shooting this kind of Grouse.
Mr. George Gibbs informed Dr. Suckley that he has met with the Dusky
Grouse as far south as the Russian River Mountains, in California, and
found it also common on the east side of the Cascades, as far north as
the 49th parallel.
Dr. Cooper’s account of these birds is substantially similar to the
account given by Dr. Suckley of the _fuliginosus_. He found it common
in most of the forests, especially in the dense spruce woods near the
coast. It was rarely seen on the open prairie. In the dense woods it
was exceedingly difficult to detect. During May, near the coast, and
till August, on the mountains, the low tooting of this Grouse was heard
everywhere, sounding something like the cooing of a Pigeon, but in the
same deep tone as the drumming of the Ruffed Grouse. Dr. Cooper also
mentions its remarkable powers of ventriloquism, so that while the bird
may be sitting on a tree directly over your head the sound seems to come
from places quite remote.
Dr. Woodhouse states that the Dusky Grouse is found among the mountains
about Santa Fé, in New Mexico.
This Grouse was first met with by Mr. Ridgway on the Sierra Nevada,
in the vicinity of Carson City, where it was seen in the possession
of Indians who had been hunting on the mountains. It was found on
the East Humboldt Mountains, in the month of September, and at that
time occurred in small flocks, consisting chiefly of young birds, and
probably composed of single families. Afterwards, in the summer of 1869,
it was found in considerable abundance in Parley’s Park, a few miles
from Salt Lake City. It there chiefly inhabited the copses of scrub-oaks
along the lower border of coniferous woods. In July it was found in
the Uintah Mountains in very great abundance, and for a while formed
the chief subsistence of the party. It was there known as the Mountain
Grouse. Nothing very distinctive was ascertained in regard to its
habits, except that it was said to resemble very closely, in manners,
the Ruffed Grouse. Its flesh was excellent eating.
Dr. Suckley, in a series of papers on the Grouse of the United States
which were read before the New York Lyceum in 1860, states that this
species probably extend their range to quite a distance south of
latitude 40° along the line of the Rocky Mountains, in New Mexico. This
writer claimed to have met with them near Pike’s Peak, in the Cheyenne
Pass, and in 1853 he found them in great numbers in Lewis and Clarke’s
Pass, west of Fort Benton. He also found them abundantly in Oregon and
on the slopes of the Cascade and Coast Ranges, extending wherever pine
or fir timber occurs, to the very borders of the ocean. The Black Hills,
in Nebraska, he gives as their most eastern limit.
The same author corrects the statements of Douglas as to certain habits
of this species. The males are said not to be particularly pugnacious,
and very rarely forsake the boughs of the pine or fir trees for a rocky
eminence. They feed on berries only during a brief season in autumn, at
all other times of the year subsisting upon the leaves of the pine and
fir, especially those of the Douglas Fir. This food imparts a strong
resinous flavor to the flesh of this Grouse, which, however, is not
unpleasant, and after a while becomes quite attractive to the epicure.
The love-notes of this bird are said to be deep, soft, plaintive, but
unmusical, and resemble the whirring sounds made by a rattan, swung
rapidly and in jerks through the air. These notes usually begin the
first week in March. The young are able to fly feebly by the first of
July. By the last of August they have attained their full size. In the
winter they retire to the tops of the loftiest firs, where they pass
the season in an almost immovable state of hibernation. Between July
and winter they may be readily shot. Once raised, they invariably fly
to trees. They heed but little the report of a gun unless they have
been wounded. Their flesh is said to be midway between the color of the
Pinnated and the Ruffed Grouse, partaking of their good qualities, but
surpassing either.
The eggs of this species are oval in shape; one end is a little more
obtuse than the other. The ground is of a pale cream-color, and is
marked with small rounded spots of reddish-brown. These are more
numerous and larger towards the larger end. They measure 1.95 inches in
length and 1.45 in breadth.
Canace obscurus, var. fuliginosus, RIDGWAY.