The Three Most Important Game Birds

Of the State of New York.

By H. A. SURFACE, M. Sc...

[Fellow in Vertebrate Zoology in Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.]

A GOOD POINT.

"GAME BIRD" has been defined as "one

which is suitable for food, and which is habitually pursued for sport, demanding skill and dexterity for its capture." (F. A. Bates, in "The Game Birds of North America.")

Again, "a game bird is one that lies to the dog, and can be shot only while on the wing." (H. D. Minot, in "The Land and Game Birds of Eastern North America.")

No two definitions of "a game bird" will agree, and none will be entirely satisfactory.

There are no natural or scientific boundaries by which birds that are hunted for sport differ (as a group) from other birds, and so it might be said that a game bird is one that plays in a game which on one hand is sport

to the hunter, and on the other, life or death to the bird.

The Ruffed Grouse. Bonasa umbellus (Linnæus).

The classification of this noble game bird is as follows:

Order GALLINA-The Gallinaceous Birds.

Family Tetraonida-The Grouse, Partridges, and Quails.

Family characters: Hind toes small (much less than half as long as lateral toes), and inserted above the level of the anterior toes.

Tarsi without spurs.

Head

Tail not

entirely feathered (in American species) except sometimes over eyes. vaulted or arched.

Subfamily Tetraonina-The Grouse.

Subfamily characters: Gallinaceous birds with the margins of the toes distinctly pectinated in winter; the tarsi at least half feathered; the nasal fossæ densely filled with feathers (so as to completely enclose and partially conceal the nostril); sides of neck often with an inflatable air sac. A bare (usually red or yellow) space over eyes. Genus BONASA Stephens.

Bonasa Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zoöl. xi, 1819, 298.

Type, Tetrao bonasia Linn.

Tetrastes Keys. & Blas. Wirb. Europ., 1840, p. lxiv.

General characters: Tail fan-shaped, its feathers very broad, soft, as long as the wings; eighteen in number. Tarsi naked for the lower half; covered with two rows of hexagonal scales anteriorly. Sides of toes strongly pectinated (in winter). Side of neck with a tuft of very broad, soft feathers. Portion of culmen between the nasal fossæ about one-third the total length. Top of head with soft crest. Bonasa umbellus (Linnæus). RUFFED GROUSE.

Popular synonyms: "Partridge" (in New England); "Pheasant" (in Southern and Western States); Ruffled Grouse; Drumming Grouse.

[Replaced from

Habitat. Eastern United States, south to the Gulf coast (?). Manitoba, northwestward, and also in the Rocky Mountains, by a gray race (Bonasa umbellus umbelloides), and on the coast of Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia by the dark rusty Bonasa umbellus sabini (Douglass).]

Specific characters: Above ochraceous-brown finely mottled with grayish; the scapulars and wing-coverts with pale shaft-streaks, the rump and upper tail-coverts with median cordate spots of pale grayish. Tail ochraceous-rufous, narrowly barred with black, crossed terminally with a narrow band of pale ash; then a broader one of black, this preceded by another ashy one. (In specimens from the Alleghany Mountains and New England States, the tail usually more or less grayish to the base, sometimes entirely destitute of rufous tinge.) Throat and foreneck ochraceous. Lower parts white (ochraceous beneath the surface), with broad transverse bars of dilute brown, these mostly concealed on the abdomen. Lower tail-coverts pale ochraceous, each with a terminal deltoid spot of white, bordered with dusky. Necktufts brown or black. Length, 18.00; wing, 7.20; tail, 7.00 (in.). Female smaller, and with the neck-tufts less developed, but colors similar. Young (No. 39,161 St. Stephen's N. B.; G. A. Boardman): brown above and dingy white beneath; a rufous tinge on the scapulars. Feathers of the jugulum, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts with broad median streaks of light ochraceous, and black spots on the webs; jugulum with strong buff tinge. Secondaries and wing-coverts strongly mottled transversely. Head dingy buff, the upper part more rusty; a postocular or auricular dusty patch,

and a tuft of dusky feathers on the vertex. Chick: Above light rufous, beneath rusty white; uniform above and below; a dusky postocular streak inclining downwards across the auriculars. Bill whitish. ("History of North American Birds."*)

This beautiful bird is found from the Eastern United States westward to the edge of the Great Plains, and from Northern New York, Southern Ontario, Canada, and Minnesota, southward to Northern South Carolina and Northwestern Georgia, Tennessee, and Arkansas. In the northern portion of its range it is found in the lowlands, and in the southern, in the highlands. In the northern part of this State it intergrades with a gray variety, the Canadian Ruffed Grouse, known as Bonasa umbellus togata, R. It breeds throughout its range and is highly appreciated as a game bird and as an article of food for man. The habitat preferred by this bird is a hilly, wooded country with much undergrowth and some meadows and cultivated fields near by. During the close season or period when protected by law, and during the early part of the open season, it is very confiding and is often seen out in the open fields; but when the fall shooting commences, it soon learns to keep near or in the brushy woods. They commence to mate in March, when the loud and characteristic booming or drumming sound of the male may be heard. He selects a log near the edge of the woods, and after considerable strutting, spread of tail and show of black ruff or neck-feathers, he stretches himself on his perch and commences to beat the air vigorously with his wings, at first rather slowly, but soon with such rapid vibrations that one would scarcely believe that voluntary muscular fibre can be made to move so rapidly.

There has been much discussion as to how this drumming sound is produced, some persons holding that it is caused by the wings striking the log; others say that the wings strike the inflated body of the bird; but it is now generally agreed that the sound is made by the feathers of the wings cutting rapidly through the air. The noise produced is of the same nature and practically made in the same manner as the whirring sound of the bird's wings when it suddenly takes flight by being frightened. Although the drumming is mostly done in the spring time, the sound may be heard almost every month of the year, and it is probable that it is for the purpose of notifying the female of his whereabouts. The same drumming site is usually selected, not only from day to day and month to month, but from year to year. This habit of the birds in frequenting one spot has often led to their destruction, as boys frequently place snares arranged with spring-poles along the log and catch the grouse by their necks. There they are found hanging dead. However, this is now illegal.

• These descriptions are from R. Ridgway, in "The Ornithology of Illinois," Nat. Hist. Survey of Ill., Pt. 1, Vol. II.