Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The spotted or Canada grouse, Canace or Dendragapus canadensis: so called in New England, Canada, etc., in distinction from the ruffed grouse, there known as the partridge, and because the bird is highly characteristic of the coniferous woods. See cut under
Canace .
Etymologies
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Examples
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The spruce-partridge is rather rare in inhabited Maine, and is malignantly accused of being bitter in flesh, and of feeding on spruce-buds to make itself distasteful.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 61, November, 1862 Various
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Iglesias and I, meanwhile, marched along and shot the game of the country, namely, one _Tetrao Canadensis_, one spruce-partridge, making in all one bird, quite too pretty to shoot with its red and black plumage.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 61, November, 1862 Various
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Late that afternoon we halted beside a tiny lake, deep in the unknown wilderness, where purple and scarlet bergamot choked the shores and the spruce-partridge strutted fearlessly under our very feet.
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The Abwees were canoeing, not hunting or fishing; though, in truth, they did not need to hunt spruce-partridge or fish for bass in any sporting sense; they simply went out after them, and never stayed over half an hour.
Crooked Trails Frederic Remington 1885
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