58 ALLEN'S naturalist's LIBRARY. 



Canada Grouse {C. canadensis)^ and may be regarded as the 

 representative form of that species in the Old World. 



THE AMERICAN CAPERCAILZIES. GENUS 



DENDRAGAPUS. 



Dendragapus^ Elliot, Proc. Acad. Philad. 1864, p. 23. 



Type, D. obscurus (Say). 



Toes naked and pectinate along the sides. Tail long, com- 

 posed of twenty feathers sub-equal in length. The male is 

 provided with an inflatable air-sac on each side of the Jteck, but 

 there are no elongate tufts of feathers, nor are the outer flight- 

 feathers attenuated or sickle-shaped. 



This genus includes three rather large forms, about the size 

 of a Black Grouse, but, unlike these birds and the True Caper- 

 cailzies, the American Capercailzie seems to pair with one 

 female only. 



I. DUSKY CAPERCAILZIE. DENDRAGAPUS OBSCURUS. 



Tetrao obscurus, Say, in Long's Exped. Rocky Mts. ii. p. 14 



(1823) ; Bonap. Amer. Orn. iii. p. 27, pi. xviii. (1828). 

 Dendragapus obscurus, Elliot, Proc. Acad. Philad. 1864, p. 23, 



and Monogr. Tetraon. pi. vii. (1865) ; Bendire, Life Hist. 



N. Am. B. p. 41 (1892) ; Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. 



xxii. p. 74 (1893). 



Adult Male. — General colour above smoky-black, mixed with 

 brownish-buff, below grey; chest and breast not barred and 

 marked with buff; tail somewhat rounded, with a wide terminal 

 grey band varying in width on the middle feathers from i to i'5 

 inch. Total length, 19-5 inches ; wing, 10; tail, 67 ; tarsus, 



i7- 



Adult Female. — Chest and breast barred and marked with 

 buff; tail with a wide grey terminal band, about o'8 inch in 

 width, on the outermost feathers. Total length, 17 inches; 

 wing, 8'6; tail, 5*9; tarsus, i"6. 



