BONA'SIA, a genus of Birds belonging to the Tetraotticite (Grouse Family). It is thus characterised by C. L. Bonaparte:— Lower portion of the tarsus or shank and the toes naked ; tail long and rounded ; the head adorned with a crest, and the sides of the neck with a ruff. The plumage of the female nearly the same as that of the male, and varying but little throughout the year.
Swainson retains the Linnzean name for the bird, and makea Tetrad the typical group of the subgenera into which he divides the genus, expressing however considerable doubt on the value of the types.
The Ruffed Grouse (Bonasia Umbellus of Bonaparte ; Tetrad Umbellue and Tetra') togaitte of Linnaeus ; Tetrao Umbellue of Linnaeus and Swainson) is the Shoulder-Knot Grouse of Latham ; the Ruffed Heathcock or Grouse of Edwards ; La Gelinote Hup4e de Pensilvanie of Brisson; La Grosse Gelinotte de Canada and Le Coq de Bruybre h Fraise of Ruffen ; the Pheasant of the Pennsylvanians, and of the inhabitants of the southern States ; the Whits Flesber and Pheasant of the Anglo-Americans generally.
Audubon says that to the west of the Alleghanies, and on those mountains, the term Pheasant is generally used to designate the bird, and that the same appellation is employed in the middle States to the east of the mountains, till the State of Connecticut is entered, where the name of Partridge prevails. Lawson uses the term Pheasant. "The pheasant of Carolina differs some small matter from the English pheasant, being not so big, and having some difference in feather ; yet he is not any wise inferior in delicacy, but is as good meat or rather finer. He haunts the back-woods, and is seldom found near the inhabitants." Wilson calls it throughout Pheasant, except in one place, where he terms it the Pheasant or Partridge of New England.
According to the author last quoted, this bird is known in almost every quarter of the United States ; is common at Moose Fort, on Hudson's Ray, in lat. 51°; frequent in the upper part of Georgia, and verk abundant in Kentucky and Indiana. In the lower parts of Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, according to the same authority, it is very seldom observed, but ou advancing inland to the mountains it again makes its appearance ; and though it is occasionally met with in the lower parts of New Jersey, its occurrence there is considered to be owing to the more northerly situation of the country ; for even here they are far less numerous than among the mountains.
Captains Lewis and Clarke found it in crossing the Rocky Moun tains which divide the basin of the Columbia from that of the Mississippi, more than 3000 miles by their measurement from the mouth of the latter river. Sir John Richardson says that it exists as far north as the 56th parallel, and that it is very plentiful on the banks of the Saskatchewan ; adding in a note, that Mr. Drummond procured specimens at the sources of the Peace River, in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, which do not differ from those killed on the Saskatchewan. The limit of its southern range has been stated to be the Gulf of Mexico. Audubon found these birds most numerous in the States of Pennsylvania and new York, and says that they are to be met with as you travel towards the south, through the whole of Tennessee and the Choctaw territory ; but that as you approach the city of Natchez they disappear; nor had he ever heard of one of these birds having been seen in the State of Louisiana.
"The manners of the pheasant," says, Wilson, "are solitary ; they are seldom found in coveys of more than four or five together, and more usually in pairs or singly. They leave their sequestered haunts in the woods early in the morning, and seek the path or road to pick up gravel, and glean among the droppings of the horses. In travelling among the mountains that bound Susquehanna, I was always able to furnish myself with an abundant supply of these birds every morning without leaving the path. If the weather be foggy or lowering, they are sure to be seen in such situations. They generally move along with great stateliness, with their broad fan-like tail spread out." Audubon states that, although they are attached to the craggy sides of mountains and hills, and rocky borders of small streams thickly mantled with evergreen trees and shrubs, they at times remove to the lowlands, and even enter the thickest cane-brakes, where they some times breed, and where he shot some, and heard them drumming when there were no hills nearer than 15 or 20 miles. The lower parts of the State of Indiana, and also those of Kentucky, were amongst the places where he so discovered them. The following is his
account of their autumnal migrations, which he seems to have first observed : " The ruffed grouse although a constant resident in the districts which it frequents, performs partial sorties at the approach of autumn. These are not equal in extent to the peregrinations of the wild turkey, our little partridge, or the pinnated grouse, but are sufficiently so to become observable during the seasons when certain portions of the mountainous districts which they inhabit become less abundantly supplied with food than others. These partial movings might not be noticed, were not the birds obliged to fly across rivers of great breadth, as whilst in the mountain lands their groups are as numerous as those which attempt these migrations ; but on the north-west banks of the Ohio and Susquehanna rivers, no one who pays the least attention to the manners and habits of our birds can fail to observe them. The grouse approach the banks of the Ohio in parties of eight or tan, now and then of twelve or fifteen, and on arriving there linger in the woods close by for a week or a fortnight, as if fearful of encountering the danger to be-incurred in crossing the stream. This usually happens in the beginning of October, when these birds are in the very best order for the table, and at this period great numbers of them are killed. If started from the ground, with or without the assistance of a dog, they immediately alight on the nearest trees, and are easily shot. At length however they resolve upon crossing the river ; and this they accomplish with so much ease that I never saw any of them drop into the water. Not more than two or three days elapse after they have reached the opposite shore, when they at once proceed to the interior of the forests in search of places congenial to the general character of their habits. They now resume their ordinary manner of living, which they continue until the approach of spring, when the males, as if leading the way, proceed singly towards the country from which they had retreated. The females follow in small parties of three or four. In the month of October, 1820, I observed a larger number of ruffed grouse migrating thus from the states of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana into Kentucky, than I had ever before remarked. During the short period of their lingering along the north-west shore of the Ohio that season, a great number of them was killed, and they were sold in the Cincinnati market for so small a sum as 12i cents each." - Wilson says that the Ruffed Grouse is in the best order for the table in September and October. At this season they feed chiefly on whortleberries, and the little red aromatic Partridge-Berries (Gaul atria procumbene), the last of which give their flesh a peculiarly delicate flavour. With the former the mountains are literally covered from August to November ; and these constitute at that season the greater part of their food. During the deep snows of winter they have recourse to the buds of alder, and the tender buds of the laurel (Kahnia). He frequently found their crops distended with a large handful of these latter alone; and adds, that it has been confidently asserted, that after having fed for some time on the laurel-buds, their flesh becomes highly dangerous to eat of, partaking of the poisonous qualities of the plant. The same has been asserted of the flesh of the deer, when in severe weather and deep snows they subsist on the leaves and bark of the laurel. " Though," continues Wilson, "I have myself eat freely of the flesh of the pheasant after emptying it of large quantities of laurel buds, without experiencing any bad consequences, yet from the respectability of those, some of them eminent physicians, who have particularised cases in which it has proved deleterious, and even fatal, I am inclined to believe that in certain cases where this kind of food has been long continued, and the birds allowed to remain undrawn for several days, until the contents of the crop and stomach have had time to diffuse themselves through the flesh, as is too often the case, it may be unwholesome and dangerous. Great numbers of these birds are brought to our markets at all times during fall and winter, some of which are brought from a distance of more than a hundred miles, and have been probably dead a week er two, unpicked and undrawn, before they are purchased for the table. Regulations prohibiting them from being brought to market unless picked and drawn would very probably be a sufficient security from all danger.