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Articles

Vol. 27 No. 1 (1996)

THE PRINCE OF WALES SPRUCE GROUSE: A NEW SUBSPECIES FROM SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA

Submitted
September 17, 2025
Published
January 1, 1996

Abstract

The Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis; see below for use of generic name) consists of two groups of subspecies, those with white-tipped upper tail coverts and lacking a chestnut tail band (the franklinii group) and those without white tipping but with a chestnut tail band (the canadensis group, see Figure 1). The first group, up to now composed of only the subspecies franklinii, was until recently represented from Alaska by only a single museum specimen, an adult female taken by Wilfred H. Osgood on Prince of Wales Island in the Alexander Archipelago on 27 May 1903 (unpublished data in Smithsonian Institution archives). A second specimen, a male, was taken on the island by Paul Coffey on 14 September 1982.

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