TETRAOXID-E — THE GROUSE. 



433 



(loul)t the most southern pouil at which it has been ehscovered. Dr. Coues 

 has never met with it in ^Viizona. 



Mr. liidgway encountered it everyw'here in the Cn-eat Basin where there 

 was a thrifty growth of the artemisia, which ajjpears everywhere to regu- 

 hite its e.xistence. He corroborates the accounts given of its heavy, himber- 

 ing flight ; and when it has once escaped, it tiies so far that the sportsman 

 rarely has a second oppcnt unity to flush it. It rises apparently with great 

 effort. He was told bv the settlers of Xevada and Utah that tlie Sasre-Heu 

 was never known to touch grain of any kind, even wlien found in the 

 vicinity of grain-fields. This is attributed to a very curious anatomical 

 peculiarity of the species, — the entire absence of a gizzard ; having instead 

 a soft membranous stomach, rendermg it impossible to digest any hard food. 

 In a large number of specimens dissected, nothing was found but grass- 

 hoppers and lea^-es of the artemisia. 



Two eggs in my cabinet, from Utah, measure, one 2.20 l)y l..")0 inches, and 

 the other 2.15 by 1.45. They are of an elongate-oval shape, slightly pointed 

 at one end. Tlieir ground-color varies from a light-greenish drab to a drab 

 shaded with buft'. They are thickly freckled with small rounded spots of 

 reddish-brown and dark chestnut. 



Genus PEDIGECETES, B.vird. 



Pedicecetes, B.\ird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 625. (Type, Tctrao 2>!uisiavellus, Li!fN.) 



GrKN. Ch.\r. Tail short, graduated ; exclusive of the much lengthened middle part, 

 where are two feathers (perhaps tail-coverts) with parallel edges and truncated ends 



Pediaretes phasiandlrts. 



half the full rounded wing. Tarsi densely feathered to the toes and between their bases. 

 Neck without peculiar feathers. Culmen between the nasal fossae not half the total length. 

 VOL. in. 55 



