380 University of California Publications in Zoology (Vou. 24

colored bar across the center of the tail, not to be seen. unless the
feathers are widely spread. Of the two immature males, one has the
tail black except for scattered and faint reddish spots near the tips of
some feathers; the other has the central rectrices narrowly tipped with
whitish, some of the others very faintly with pale reddish. Of the
five females, all have the central rectrices with more or less of a pale
margin at the tip, and only one lacks such tipping to the lateral
rectrices.

The adult male has large and conspicuous whitish spots on the long
upper tail coverts. On the two immature males these spots are poorly
indicated. On the two summer females they are inconspicuous; two
of the three fall females have them conspicuously present, in one they
are slight. In this series of birds there is no evidence of two color
phases (as described by Riley, loc. cit.).

Bonasa umbellus umbelloides (Douglas). Gray Ruffed Grouse

Abundant throughout the poplar woods of the lowlards. On June
18 several broods of small young were seen, and from then on flocks
of growing youngsters were frequently encountered. Toward the end
of August some flocks were of such size as to make it seem probable
that they were composed of two or more broods. The cocks are solitary
through the summer; even in September extremely wary single birds
were flushed that were assumed.to be old males that had not yet joined
the flocks.

Fourteen specimens collected (nos. 42014-42027), one old male,
June 5, the others all taken in September and in the latter stages of
the autumnal molt. The molt is completed about October 1. Two are
red tailed, twelve gray tailed, indicating a preponderance of the gray
phase in this region.

Two fall specimens at band from St. John trail, upper Peace River,
Alberta, may be assumed to be representative of typical wmbelloides.
The birds from Hazelton and Kispiox Valley, though referable to
umbelloides, are appreciably less grayish, more brownish in coloration,
than these Peace River specimens, and they are also less gray than
ruffed grouse from the upper Stikine River, to the northward. The
increased brownness of the Skeena Valley grouse may be indicative of
intergradation toward sabini of the southern coastal region of British
Columbia. How far north sabini extends is as yet undetermined,