Bonasa

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Bonasa
Female Ruffed Grouse (B. umbellus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Galliformes Family: Tetraonidae Genus: Bonasa Stephens, 1819
Species
Bonasa bonasia Bonasa sewerzowi Bonasa umbellus

Bonasa is a genus of birds in the grouse family. It contains three species:

• Hazel Grouse, Bonasa bonasia
• Severtzov's Grouse, Bonasa sewerzowi
• Ruffed Grouse, Bonasa umbellus

All three live in forests with at least some conifers in cool regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The two Old World species, the Hazel Grouse of northern Eurasia and Severtzov's Grouse of mountains in central China, are particularly closely related. The Ruffed Grouse lives in the northern United States and southern Canada.

Bonasa is from bonasus, Latin for the European bison, from Ancient Greek bonasos (βονασος), apparently because the sounds these birds make were thought to resemble the bellowing of bovines (Holloway 2003).

[edit] References

• Holloway, Joel Ellis (2003). Dictionary of Birds of the United States: Scientific and Common Names. Timber Press, 39. ISBN 0-88192-600-0. 
• Peterson, Alan P. (Editor). 1999. Zoological Nomenclature Resource (Zoonomen). Accessed 2007-07-29.