Game Birds and Game Fishes of the Pacific Coast

by Harry Thom Payne

THE WHITE-WINGED DOVE

(Melopelia leucoptera)

The white-winged dove is nearly one-half larger than the common mourning dove. They range from Mexico through southern Arizona to the Colorado desert in southeastern California. In some parts of Arizona and in Mexico they are found in large numbers, and afford good shooting. Their habits are the same as the common dove, both as to food and nesting, though in parts of Mexico it nests in the pitahaya plants—a species of cactus—of whose fruit it is very fond.

This species can easily be distinguished from any other member of the dove family by the broad patch of white on the wings.

Order, GALLINAE
Family, TETRAONIDAE
Subfamily, TETRAONINAE. (Grouse)

Genus		Species	Common Names		Range and Breeding Grounds
Bonasa		umbellus sabini	Oregon ruffed grouse		Western Oregon and Washington and Northwestern California.
		umbellus togata	Canada ruffed grouse		Eastern sides of Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington, thence East.
Centrocercus		urophasianus	Sage hen		Northeastern California, Nevada and the sage lands of Oregon and Washington.
Dendragapus		franklini	Spruce grouse		Western slope of the Cascade Mountains.
		obscurus	Dusky grouse		Northeastern Arizona and Eastern Nevada.
		obscurus fuliginosus	Sooty grouse		Coast Range and Sierras from Southern California to British Columbia.
Pediocaetes		phasianellus columbianus	Sharp-tail hen		Eastern Oregon and Washington and a few in Northeastern California.

THE GROUSE

Within the territorial scope of this work there are seven species of the grouse family, though only four of these are in any way common. As the wild turkey is confined to the southern extremity of the Pacific Coast hunting grounds, so are the grouse principally found in the northern sections. I have met with a few dusky grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) in the mountains of Arizona, but they are by no means plentiful. There were a few and possibly is yet an occasional sooty grouse (Dendragapus obscurus fuliginosus) in the mountains of southern California, but grouse in sufficient numbers to furnish any kind of sport are not found much south of Yosemite valley in the Sierras, or south of Humboldt county in the Coast range. An occasional pair or small flock, however, may be met with considerable south of the points named.