302 DUSKY GROUSE. 



tlie feathers having two or three narrow bars of pale ochreous, much 

 less pure and bright on the neck and breast ; the small short feathers 

 at the base of the bill covering the nostrils are tinged with ferruginous, 

 those immediately nearest the forehead have but a single band, and are 

 slightly tipped, while the larger ones of the neck, back, rump, and 

 even the tail-coverts, as well as the feathers of the breast, have two 

 bands and the tip. These rufous terminal margins, on the upper por- 

 tion of the back, and on the tail-coverts, are broad, and sprinkled Avith 

 black, so as to be often blended with the lower band. The sides of 

 the head, and the throat, are whitish' dotted with blackish, the black 

 occupying both sides of eaoh feather, deepening and taking a band-like 

 appearance on the inferior portion of the upper sides of the neck ; on 

 each feather of the breast is a whitish band that becomes wider on those 

 nearest the belly ; the flanks are varied with rufous, each feather 

 having besides the small tip, three broad cross lines of that color, and a 

 white spot at the tip of the shaft, increasing in size as they are placed 

 lower. The belly feathers are plain dull cinereous, the lower tail- 

 coverts are white, black at their base, with one or two black bands 

 besides, and tinged between the bands with grayish ochreous. The 

 wings are nine and a half inches long, with the third and fifth primaries 

 subequal, the coverts as well as the scapulars are of the general color, 

 with about two bands, the second of which is sprinkled as well as the 

 tip, each feather being white on the shaft at tip ; the primaries, second- 

 aries, and outer wing-coverts, including their shafts, are plain dusky ; 

 the secondaries have ochreous zigzag marks on their outer webs, and 

 are slightly tipped with dull whitish ; the primaries themselves are some- 

 what mottled with dingy white externally, but are notwithstanding 

 entirely without the regular white spots so remarkable in other Grouse ; 

 the lower wing-coverts and long axillary feathers are pure white. The 

 tail measures in length seven and a half inches, is very slightly rounded, 

 of twenty broad feathers, of which the lateral are plain blackish, with 

 the exception of a few whitish dots at the base of their outer webs, and 

 the middle ones being varied with rufous dots disposed like the bauds 

 across their whole width ; all are thickly dotted with gray for half an 

 inch at tip, which in the specimen figured, but by no means so much 

 so in others, gives the tail an appearance of having a broad terminal 

 band of cinereous sprinkled with blackish. This circumstance evinces 

 the inutility of describing with the extreme minuteness to which we 

 have descended in this instance, as after all the pains bestowed, the 

 description is only that of an individual. The tail is pure black beneath, 

 considerably paler at tip and on the undulations of the middle feathers. 

 The tarsus is three-quarters of an inch long ; the feathers with which 

 it is covered, together with the femorals, are pale grayish ochreous 

 undulated with dusky ; the toes are dusky, and the nails blackish. 



