Identifier: handbooktogamebia01ogil (find matches)
Title: A hand-book to the game-birds
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Ogilvie-Grant, W. R. (William Robert), 1863-1924
Subjects: Game and game-birds
Publisher: London : E. Lloyd
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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t witnessed in bird-life. At first the birds may be seenstanding about in ordinary attitudes, when suddenly one ofthem lowers its head, spreads out its wings nearly horizontallyand its tail perpendicularly, distends its air-sacs and erects itsfeathers, then rushes across the * floor, taking the shortest ofsteps, but stamping its feet so hard and rapidly, that the soundis like that of a kettledrum \ at the same time it utters a sortof bubbling crow, which seems to come from the air-sacs, beatsthe air with its wings and vibrates its tail, so that it producesa loud, rustling noise, and thus contrives at once to make asextraordinary a spectacle of itself as possible. As soon as onecommences, all join in, rattling, stamping, drumming, crowing,and dancing together furiously; louder and louder the noise,faster and faster the dance becomes, until at last, as they madlywhirl about, the birds leap over each other in their excitement.After a brief spell the energy of the dancers begins to abate,
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THE RUFFED GROUSE. 71 and shortly afterward they cease, and stand or move about veryquietly, until they are again sta ted by one of their numberleading off. Nest—A hollow in the ground, generally lined with grass andwell-concealed. Eggs.—Less richly coloured than those of the northern form. THE RUFFED GROUSE. GENUS EONASA.Bofiasa, Steph. in Shaws Gen. Zool. xi. p. 298 (1819).Type, B. iimbelliis (Linn.).Tarsi only partially feathered, the lower part being entirelynaked. Toes naked and pectinate along the sides. Tail com-posed of eighteen feathers, rather long and bluntly wedge-ohaped, the outermost pair being nearly as long as the middlepair. Sexes similar in plumage. A frilled ruffle of fan-shapedfeathers on each side of the neck. Only one North Americanspecies is known. I. THE RUFFED GROUSE. BONASA UMBELLUS. Tetrao ufubelius, Linn. S. N. i. p. 275 (1766). Tetrao togatus, Linn. S. N. i. p. 275 (1766). Bonasa umbe/lus, Steph. in Shaws Gen. Zool. xi. p. 300 (1819); Bendire, Life His

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