We have but little reliable information in regard to the habits and distribution of this species. It seems to be confined entirely to the range of the Rocky Mountains, and to be found only among their highest points, occurring at least as far to the south as Cochetope Pass, in latitude 39°, and extending north to an undetermined extent. Specimens were procured in 1858 by Captain R. B. Marcy, on his march from Fort Bridger, in Utah, across the Rocky Mountains to Santa Fé. They were met with near the summit of the mountains not far from Cochetope Pass.
Mr. Charles E. Aiken writes me that he has been informed that this bird is common on Snowy Range, in Colorado Territory. He was informed by an old miner, who claimed to have met with these birds breeding near the top of the range in June, that their nest, composed of leaves and grass, is placed on the ground among bushes on hillsides; that the eggs are fourteen in number, of a light bluish-brown, marked and spotted with a darker shade of brown.
Mr. J. A. Allen (Am. Nat., June, 1872) mentions finding, among the snow-fields of the higher parts of the mountains of Colorado, this Grouse as one of the essentially Arctic species that were not met with below the region of snow. The Ptarmigans were quite common, and in the winter descend into the timbered land, where a great number are killed by the miners for food.
An egg, given to Mr. Allen as a genuine egg of this species, was taken on Mount Lincoln, Colorado, by Mr. Arthur Meade. It is of an oblong-oval shape, and measures, as well as its imperfect condition permitted its length to be estimated, about 1.80 inches by 1.20 in breadth. Its ground is a deep ochraceous cream-color, marked with small rounded spots of a deep chestnut. These are pretty uniformly sprinkled over the surface. Except in size, it bears a close resemblance to the eggs of the European Tetrao urogallus.
Family PERDICIDÆ.—The Partridges.
Char. Nostrils protected by a naked scale. The tarsi bare and scutellate.
The Perdicidæ differ from the Grouse in the bare legs and naked nasal fossæ. They are much smaller in size and more abundant in species. They are widely distributed over the surface of the globe, a large number belonging to America, where the subfamilies have no Old World representatives whatever. The head seldom, if ever, shows the naked space around and above the eye, so common in the Tetraonidæ; and the sides of the toes scarcely exhibit the peculiar pectination formed by a succession of small scales or plates.
Subfamily ORTYGINÆ.
Char. Bill stout, the lower mandible more or less bidentate on each side near the end.