662 GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 



Subgenus. — Tetrao. 



Tarsus wholly feathered ; toes naked. Not varying sensibly with 

 the seasons. The flesh black. These inhabit temperate and almost 

 mild regions, and dwell in plains and level as well as mountainous 

 countries. 



PINNATED GROUS. 



{Tetrao cupido, L. Wilson, iii, p. 104. pi. 27. fig. 1. [male.] Phil. 

 Museum, No. 4700,4701.) 



Sp. Charact. — Partly crested, mottled; tail rather short, much 

 rounded, formed of 18 nearly plain dusky feathers, tipped with 

 whitish 3 primaries externally spotted with brownish white. — 

 In the male the neck is furnished with wing-like appendages, — 

 Female and young without the cervical tufts. 



Choosing particular districts for residence, the Grous, 

 or Prairie-Hen, is consequently by far less common than 

 the preceding species. Confined to dry, barren, and 

 bushy tracts, of small extent, they are in several places 

 now wholly or nearly exterminated. Along the Atlantic 

 coast, they are still met with on the Grous plains of New 

 Jersey, on the brushy plains of Long Island, in similar 

 shrubby barrens in Westford, Connecticut, in the island of 

 Martha's Vinyard on the south side of Massachusetts Bay ; 

 and formerly, as probably in many other tracts, according 

 to the information which I have received from Lieut. Gov- 

 ernor Winthrop, they were so common on the ancient bushy 

 site of the city of Boston, that laboring people or ser- 

 vants stipulated with their employers not to have the Heath- 

 Hen brought to table oftener than a few times in the week ! 

 According to Wilson, they are also still met with among 

 the scrub-oak and pine-hills of Pocono, in Northampton 

 county, Pennsylvania. They are also rather common 

 throughout the barrens of Kentucky, and on the prairies 



