Color Key to North American Birds / with bibliographical appendix

by Frank M. Chapman

Order X. GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, BOB-WHITES, ETC.

GALLINAE.

Family 1.	GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, etc.	Tetraonidæ.	21 species, 22 subspecies.
Family 2.	TURKEYS, PHEASANTS, etc.	Phasianidæ.	1 species. 3 subspecies.
Family 3.	CURASSOWS and GUANS.	Cracidæ.	1 species.

The members of the family Tetraonidæ are usually placed in three subfamilies as follows: (1.) Perdicinæ, containing the true Quails and Partridges of the Old World and with no species in America. (2.) Odontophorinæ, including the Bob-whites and so-called 'Quails' and 'Partridges' of the New World, and with no species in the eastern hemisphere. (3.) Tetraoninæ, the Grouse, with representatives in the northern parts of both hemispheres. All the members of the first two families have the legs bare, while the Grouse have the legs, and often even the toes, more or less feathered.

The application of different names to the members of this family, in various parts of the country, often make it uncertain just what species is referred to under a given title. Our Bob-white, for example, is a 'Quail' at the north and a 'Partridge' at the south. As a matter of fact it is, strictly speaking, neither a true Quail nor Partridge but a member of a family restricted to America.

Again, the Ruffed Grouse is a 'Partridge' at the north and a 'Pheasant' at the south, whereas in truth it is neither one nor the other. So far as the application of these local names goes, it is to be noted that where the Bob-white is called 'Quail' the Grouse is called 'Partridge' and that where it is called 'Partridge' the Grouse is known as 'Pheasant'.

All the Tetraonidæ are ground-inhabiting birds, and their plumage of blended browns, buffs and grays brings them into such close harmony with their surroundings that, as a rule, we are unaware of the presence of one of these birds until, with a whirring of short, stiff, rounded wings it springs from the ground at our feet. It is this habit of 'lying close,' as sportsmen term it, in connection with their excellent flesh, which makes the members of this family the favorites of the hunter and epicure and only the most stringent protective measures will prevent their extinction as their haunts become settled.

With the Ptarmigan this harmony in color is carried to a remarkable extreme, the birds being white in winter and brown, buff and black in summer; while during the early fall they assume a grayish, neutral tinted plumage to bridge over the period from the end of the nesting season, in July, to the coming of the snow in September.

The Tetraonidæ all nest on the ground, laying usually from ten to twenty eggs. The young, like those of their relative, the domestic fowl, are born covered with downy feathers and can run about shortly after birth.