Bonasa

Taxobox
name = "Bonasa"


image_width = 200px
image_caption = Female Ruffed Grouse ("B. umbellus")
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Galliformes
familia = Tetraonidae
genus = "Bonasa"
genus_authority = Stephens, 1819
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = "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 and are sometimes separated as a genus "Tetrastes" (Keyserling and J. H. Blasius 1840) (Peterson 1999). 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).

References

*
* Peterson, Alan P. (Editor). 1999. [http://www.zoonomen.net "Zoological Nomenclature Resource" (Zoonomen)] . Accessed 2008-10-08.