The members of this class, in which are included the various varieties of the ruffed grouse and those of the Spruce or Blue grouse, all spread their feet in similar fashion, and walk with the middle toes pointed inward to a considerable degree. Because of this similarity the size of the tracks and the length of steps are the only means by which to identify the particular species which made them. The ruffed grouse make the shortest steps and the smallest tracks.
RUFFED GROUSE
BLUE GROUSE
The illustrations show the tracks and trail of a dusky grouse of ordinary size, and of an unusually big ruffed grouse cock.
SHARP-TAILED GROUSE
The drawings were made under ideal tracking conditions; and only then is it possible to note the difference in the number of the knots of the middle toe. Though, as a general rule, the ruffed grouse usually frequents rather low country and the blue-grouse tribe is generally found on high grounds, the locality where a track is seen gives no sure indication of the species. The writer has frequently encountered the ruffed grouse at altitudes of over seven thousand feet, and the blue grouse lower down than he ever found the ruffed variety.