Mr. George Gibbs informed Dr. Suckley that he has met with the Dusky Grouse as far south as the Russian River Mountains, in California, and found it also common on the east side of the Cascades, as far north as the 49th parallel.
Dr. Cooper’s account of these birds is substantially similar to the account given by Dr. Suckley of the fuliginosus. He found it common in most of the forests, especially in the dense spruce woods near the coast. It was rarely seen on the open prairie. In the dense woods it was exceedingly difficult to detect. During May, near the coast, and till August, on the mountains, the low tooting of this Grouse was heard everywhere, sounding something like the cooing of a Pigeon, but in the same deep tone as the drumming of the Ruffed Grouse. Dr. Cooper also mentions its remarkable powers of ventriloquism, so that while the bird may be sitting on a tree directly over your head the sound seems to come from places quite remote.
Dr. Woodhouse states that the Dusky Grouse is found among the mountains about Santa Fé, in New Mexico.
This Grouse was first met with by Mr. Ridgway on the Sierra Nevada, in the vicinity of Carson City, where it was seen in the possession of Indians who had been hunting on the mountains. It was found on the East Humboldt Mountains, in the month of September, and at that time occurred in small flocks, consisting chiefly of young birds, and probably composed of single families. Afterwards, in the summer of 1869, it was found in considerable abundance in Parley’s Park, a few miles from Salt Lake City. It there chiefly inhabited the copses of scrub-oaks along the lower border of coniferous woods. In July it was found in the Uintah Mountains in very great abundance, and for a while formed the chief subsistence of the party. It was there known as the Mountain Grouse. Nothing very distinctive was ascertained in regard to its habits, except that it was said to resemble very closely, in manners, the Ruffed Grouse. Its flesh was excellent eating.
Dr. Suckley, in a series of papers on the Grouse of the United States which were read before the New York Lyceum in 1860, states that this species probably extend their range to quite a distance south of latitude 40° along the line of the Rocky Mountains, in New Mexico. This writer claimed to have met with them near Pike’s Peak, in the Cheyenne Pass, and in 1853 he found them in great numbers in Lewis and Clarke’s Pass, west of Fort Benton. He also found them abundantly in Oregon and on the slopes of the Cascade and Coast Ranges, extending wherever pine or fir timber occurs, to the very borders of the ocean. The Black Hills, in Nebraska, he gives as their most eastern limit.
The same author corrects the statements of Douglas as to certain habits of this species. The males are said not to be particularly pugnacious, and very rarely forsake the boughs of the pine or fir trees for a rocky eminence. They feed on berries only during a brief season in autumn, at all other times of the year subsisting upon the leaves of the pine and fir, especially those of the Douglas Fir. This food imparts a strong resinous flavor to the flesh of this Grouse, which, however, is not unpleasant, and after a while becomes quite attractive to the epicure. The love-notes of this bird are said to be deep, soft, plaintive, but unmusical, and resemble the whirring sounds made by a rattan, swung rapidly and in jerks through the air. These notes usually begin the first week in March. The young are able to fly feebly by the first of July. By the last of August they have attained their full size. In the winter they retire to the tops of the loftiest firs, where they pass the season in an almost immovable state of hibernation. Between July and winter they may be readily shot. Once raised, they invariably fly to trees. They heed but little the report of a gun unless they have been wounded. Their flesh is said to be midway between the color of the Pinnated and the Ruffed Grouse, partaking of their good qualities, but surpassing either.
The eggs of this species are oval in shape; one end is a little more obtuse than the other. The ground is of a pale cream-color, and is marked with small rounded spots of reddish-brown. These are more numerous and larger towards the larger end. They measure 1.95 inches in length and 1.45 in breadth.
Canace obscurus, var. fuliginosus, Ridgway.
OREGON DUSKY GROUSE.
? Tetrao obscurus, Newberry, P. R. R. Rept. VI, iv, 1857, 93.—Coop. & Suckl. 219.—Lord, Pr. R. A. Inst. IV, 122 (British Columbia).—Dall & Bannister, Trans. Chicago Ac. I, 1869, 287 (Alaska).—Finsch, Ab. Nat. III, 1872, 61 (Alaska).
Sp. Char. Beneath plain dark plumbeous, without whitish borders to the feathers except on flanks and crissum; whole head almost uniformly plain dusky-black. Tarsi dark plumbeous. Wing, 9.50; tail, 7.50; tarsus, 1.75; middle toe, 1.80.