Other forms prefer pine-forests, rocky ground, or dry sandy flats overgrown with cactus and sage-brush; their cries being in some cases louder or more guttural, while the eggs may be blotched or spotted with reddish-brown. Nests have even been recorded low down in trees. Ortyx virginianus has been introduced into the West Indies and the Old World, though unsuccessfully in the latter; Lophortyx californicus into Europe, the Sandwich Islands, and New Zealand, in the last two of which it is firmly established. In America, moreover, some species seem to have lately extended their range. Hybrids are occasionally found.
Sub-fam. 5. Tetraoninae.–Bonasa umbellus, the Ruffed Grouse, which inhabits the greater part of North America, is remarkable for the frills of black or chestnut feathers surmounting a bare space on the sides of the neck, and for the partially naked metatarsi. Both sexes are rufous or greyish above, with buff and black markings, a short blackish crest, and a black subterminal tail-bar; the under parts being buff, relieved by brown and white. Great variation, however, is shown, and sub-species may be easily differentiated. When undisturbed, the "Pheasant" or "Partridge," as it is variously called by local sportsmen, is tame, and prefers undulating wooded country in the neighbourhood of cultivation, though it is also found in proximity to the hills. The habits resemble those of the following species, but the food is somewhat more varied, and includes beech-nuts, chestnuts, and acorns. In spring the cock often struts upon some log, and drums after the manner of other American grouse; but the habit is not confined to that season, nor is the sound produced by inflated neck-sacs, but by the wings. The absence of the hens, moreover, suggests that the performance is not amatory. From eight to fourteen or more eggs are laid, of a whitish or buff colour, with or without round reddish spots. B. sylvestris, the Hazel Grouse–the Gelinotte of the French–is a smaller and darker bird, with white markings on the wings, and a black throat surrounded by a white line, which reaches to the forehead. There is no ruff, and the female differs from the male in her whitish throat. It inhabits hill-forests in Europe and Asia up to three thousand feet, extending southward to Northern Spain, North Italy, Transylvania, China, and Japan, but not occurring in Britain. The food consists of shoots and buds of birch and hazel, seeds, berries, and other fruit, worms, insects, and their larvae. The flight is noisy, but not protracted, the birds resorting to trees and squatting on the branches. The usual note is a melancholy whistle, followed by a chirping sound. The slight nest contains from six to fifteen yellowish eggs, spotted with a little rufous, which are deposited early in spring, as is commonly the case in the Family. B. griseiventris and B. severtzovi are the representative forms in the Government of Perm in Russia, and the districts from Koko-Nor to South Mongolia respectively. The Old World species, sometimes denominated Tetrastes, are monogamous, and do not "drum."
Different races of Pedioecetes phasianellus, the well-known Prairie Chicken, occupy America as far southwards as North California, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Both male and female shew black, red-brown, and yellowish tints above, with white streaks on the scapulars and spots on the wings, the lower surface being white with dusky markings. The short tail, with two elongated, but truncated median rectrices, gives it the name of Sharp-tailed Grouse. This shy denizen of the woods and prairies extends almost to the Arctic barren grounds in spring, that season being remarkable for the conduct of both sexes, which meet to hold regular dances on elevated spots, aptly compared to the hills of Ruffs. No doubt the cocks are the chief performers, but they are said to be monogamous, though their actions resemble those of their polygamous allies. The flight is strong and rapid, with alternate periods of flapping and sailing; the note is a triple whistle or a "cack-cack-cack." The food includes shoots of plants, grass, berries, and insects, the last-named being the chief diet of the young, as in the case of many other American Grouse. About fourteen eggs are deposited in a cavity scraped amidst rank herbage, and but slightly lined; their colour is brownish with darker spots, or occasionally creamy with marks of red.
Centrocercus urophasianus, the Sage-Cock of the Western United States and the adjoining portions of British America, has the upper parts mottled with black, grey-brown, rufous, and buff, the lower parts black, relieved by a white chest. The tail is long and wedge-shaped, with attenuated feathers; the sides of the neck and lower throat possess stiff spiny plumage, and the former bare orange air-sacs, as in the species next to be mentioned. The female lacks the black spots on the white throat. This bird, the largest of the New World Tetraoninae, is generally unsuspicious, and runs ahead of the traveller uttering cackling or clucking notes; when hard pressed it rises with fluttering action, and flies off rapidly to a considerable distance. The food consists chiefly of "sage-brush" (Artemisia tridentata), but other leaves and flowers, seeds, berries, grain, and insects vary the fare. The habits at the mating-time resemble those of Dendragapus and Tympanuchus, while the eggs, from seven to seventeen in number, may be found placed in an excavation of the bare soil, or resting on a slight lining; they are drab or olive in colour, with roundish brown spots. What seems to be the ground colour is easily rubbed off before incubation commences, a fact noticeable in other Galline birds and Plovers. The Sage-Grouse reaches a considerable elevation, as does the sage-brush, which gives its name to the bird.
Tympanuchus americanus, the Prairie-hen, found in the districts drained by the Mississippi and its confluents, and thence northwards to Ontario, is brown above, barred with buff and black, and chiefly paler brown below, marked with white. The small crest is tipped with white, and a tuft of long, stiff, black feathers covers the inflatable yellow air-sacs on the sides of the neck, the sacs being absent and the tufts shorter in females. In spring parties assemble after daybreak on dry knolls, and conduct their love affairs after the fashion of the Dusky Grouse (p. [236]), a booming noise being audible from afar, and the skin of the neck being expanded below the erected tufts. The cocks are most pugnacious when the pairing-time is nearly over. Shoots of plants, berries, grain, acorns, and insects constitute the food. The flight is powerful and rapid, but individuals often run and squat. For a Grouse the nest is considerable; and from eleven to fourteen, or even twenty, creamy or olive-coloured eggs are deposited, with very small reddish-brown spots. T. cupido, the Heath-Hen of the eastern United States, now only found on the island of Martha's Vineyard, off Massachusetts, has smaller neck-tufts of pointed feathers, and more conspicuous whitish marks on the scapulars. T. pallidicinctus, the Lesser Prairie-Hen, ranging from Texas to Kansas, is barred with brown, margined on each side with black.
Dendragapus obscurus, the Dusky, Blue, or Pine-Grouse of the Rocky Mountain districts, has black upper parts mottled with grey and a little brown, and pure grey under surface; the female having a considerable admixture of buff, and the male possessing air-sacs like those of Tympanuchus. A darker race, D. fuliginosus, extends the range to Sitka and California. Another northern form, which lacks the broad grey tail-band, is termed D. richardsoni. These birds frequent wooded ravines up to nine thousand feet, preferring the neighbourhood of water, and feeding as do their allies. The characteristic booming noise, common to this species and others, may be heard throughout the day in spring, the male choosing some horizontal bough or convenient spot of ground whereon to display himself with drooping wings, expanded tail, and inflated air-sacs. Rarely can an observer gain a view, so misleading is the ventriloquistic effect of the sound. The nest, commonly placed beneath a branch or near a tussock, is a mere depression in the soil lined with herbage, leaves, or fir-needles. The eight to twelve eggs are creamy-buff, with round brown dots.
Canachites (Canace) canadensis, the Canada Grouse or "Spruce-Partridge," found from Alaska and British America to the north-eastern United States, is black, with lead-coloured bars above, and a white pectoral band below, the tail having a chestnut tip, which is wanting in the browner C. franklini of the north-western Rocky Mountains. In the female the grey is chiefly replaced by orange. It is a tame species, and flies but a short distance before alighting on some tree. The food consists of "spruce" buds and larch needles, with berries of Vaccinium (bilberry, cranberry, etc.), Empetrum (crowberry), and so forth. It is not polygamous; but a most curious account of the cock's habits of showing off and drumming is given by Bendire.[[165]] The hen constructs a nest of dry moss, leaves, and twigs upon the ground, under shelter of some overhanging bough, and lays from eight to eighteen reddish-buff eggs with brown spots. Falcipennis hartlaubi, a very similar species, distinguished by slender sickle-shaped outer primaries, occurs in North-East Siberia, Kamtschatka, and Saghalien.
Tetrao urogallus, the Capercaillie, apparently not uncommon in Scotland until 1770, and exterminated in Ireland about the same date, was reintroduced at Taymouth Park, Perthshire, in 1838, and is now fairly plentiful in Central North Britain. Failure has attended similar attempts in Ireland. The discoveries of bones in Teesdale and near Torquay shew that this bird's range once extended to Yorkshire and Devonshire, while similar finds have been made in Aquitaine and Denmark. At the present day it inhabits sub-alpine pine-forests from Scandinavia, the Pyrenees, North Italy, and Greece to Lake Baikal and the Altai Mountains, being represented in the Urals by a sub-species, T. uralensis. The male is almost entirely blackish-grey above, with somewhat darker tail, and black below with greenish chest. The female is smaller, and is mottled with brown, buff, black, and white, merging into rufous on the breast, which is barred with black. A variable amount of white occurs beneath in both sexes. The brown hair-like feathers on the legs are longest in winter, a fact true also in the Ptarmigan and elsewhere. A cross between the hen Capercaillie and the Black-Cock is known in North Europe as the Rackelhahn (T. medius).[[166]] The "lek" or "spel," as the love-performance is called, has been described in detail by many authors;[[167]] it takes place in spring, and occasionally in autumn, when the excited male struts with drooping wings and erect outspread tail before the assembled females, uttering curious noisy cries, to which they reply with softer plaintive notes. He is said to be deaf during the "play." At times he takes up a position on some lofty bough with the evident intention of challenging his rivals, who quickly respond to the provocation; ere long they join in combat upon the ground, leaping and rushing upon one another in their blind rage, and using bills, wings, and claws as weapons of offence. The flight of the Capercaillie is heavy though strong. The food consists chiefly of young pine-shoots, which are apt to give the flesh a flavour of turpentine, but includes berries, insects, and worms. About a dozen yellowish-white eggs, freckled with dull orange, are deposited in a hole scraped for the purpose near the foot of a tree, a slight lining being sometimes added. T. parvirostris (urogalloïdes) of North-East Siberia, with comparatively slender bill and purplish-green head, and T. kamtschaticus of Kamtschatka, are distinguished by their white-tipped scapulars.
Lyrurus tetrix, the Black Grouse, called according to the sex Black Cock or Grey Hen, ranges over Europe north of the Pyrenees and Apennines, as well as through Northern Asia to the Tian-Shan Mountains and Pekin. It inhabits the wilder moorlands of the north and west of England, being much less plentiful in the Midlands, and very rare in the east. It has, however, been introduced into Norfolk, and unsuccessfully into Ireland, while it has been restored to Surrey, Sussex, and Berks, and still occurs in Wilts, Dorset, Hants, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. In Scotland it frequents most suitable districts, but does not reach Orkney, Shetland, or the Outer Hebrides. The male, remarkable for his lyrate tail with its outwardly curved rectrices, is black with steel-blue reflexions, exhibiting a little brown in parts, a white bar on the wing, and white under tail-coverts. The female is rufous and buff, barred and spotted with black, and shewing but little white. This bird is usually found on broken ground or in open woodlands, where it conceals itself among long heath, bracken, or grass. The polygamous cocks meet at dawn in spring to fight for the hens, parading before them in great excitement with depressed outspread tails, while uttering a drumming or cooing noise. At other times the call-note is loud and clear. The flight is powerful but heavy; the food includes berries, seeds, grain, shoots, buds, and insects. The nest is merely a scantily-lined hollow, situated at the foot of a tree, or in heather and the like, often near plantations. The six to ten eggs have a yellowish ground-colour, with scattered orange-brown blotches, the markings being larger than in the Capercaillie. In some winters these Grouse allow themselves to be snowed up, as occasionally do other species. L. mlokosiewiczi of the Caucasus has the rectrices only slightly curved, and black under tail-coverts. Hybrids between the Black Cock and the Willow Grouse are called Riporre in Scandinavia.
Lagopus scoticus, the Red Grouse or Muirfowl, the only bird entirely confined to our islands, differs from its congeners in never becoming white in winter. It varies considerably in coloration,[[168]] but is usually considered a local form of the Willow Grouse (L. albus) of the north of Europe, Asia, and America. The male in both summer and winter is more or less chestnut-brown above, with black markings and a reddish head; the lower parts are similar, but are usually spotted with white. In autumn the brown of the upper parts becomes buff, and the lower surface is barred with buff and black. Mr. Ogilvie Grant[[169]] recognises three types of plumage in the male, a red form with no white spots, from Ireland and Western Scotland; a blackish variety comparatively rarely found; and another largely spotted with white below or even above. Intermediate specimens constitute the bulk of our birds. The female exhibits, moreover, a buff-spotted and a buff-barred form; but in summer she is typically black above with concentric buff markings, and buff below with black bars. Her autumn plumage, which continues throughout the winter, is black, spotted with buff and barred with rufous.