Sharp-tailed Grouse

The sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus), also known as the sharptail or fire grouse, is a medium-sized prairie grouse. One of three species in the genus Tympanuchus, the sharp-tailed grouse is found throughout Alaska, much of Northern and Western Canada, and parts of the Western and Midwestern United States. The sharp-tailed grouse is the provincial bird of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. == Taxonomy == In 1750 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the sharp-tailed grouse in the third volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "The Long-tailed Grous from Hudson's-Bay". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a preserved specimen that had been brought to London from Hudson Bay by James Isham. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the sharp-tailed grouse with other grouse in the genus Tetrao. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Tetrao phasianellus and cited Edwards' work. The sharp-tailed grouse is now placed in the genus Tympanuchus that was introduced in 1841 by the German zoologist Constantin Wilhelm Lambert Gloger for the greater prairie chicken. The genus name combines the…