SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 303 



The male is but little larger, and entirely, but not intensely black. 

 We can however say very little about it, having taken but a hasty and 

 imperfect view of a specimen belonging to Mr. Sabine of London, and 

 writing merely from recollection. The tail-feathers are wholly black, 

 perfectly plain and unspotted, and in the female and young they are 

 but slightly mottled, as is seen in almost all Grouse. Mr. Sabine 

 has long had this bird in his possession, and intended dedicating it as a 

 new species to that distinguished traveller Dr. Richardson. 



TETRAO PHASIANELLVS. 



SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 



[Plate XIX.] 



Tclrao ])hasianellits,Li}in. Sysi. cd. 10, p. 160. Gmel. Syst.i., p. 747. Forst. 

 P/iil. 'frails. LXii., pp. 394 and 425. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 635, Sp. 2. Beiss. 

 Suppl. p. 9. Temm. Ind. Gall, in Hist. Pig. & Gall, in., p. 702. Vieill. Nuuv. 

 Dili. Hist. Nat. Sabine, Zool. App. to Frankl. Exp. p. 681. Nob. Cat. Birds 

 U. S. Sp. 208. Id. Sijn. Birds U. S. Sp. 209.— Jlsh-ao urogallm, var. P, Linw. 

 Si/xt. I , p. 273, Sp. 1. — Gelinoile a longue queue, Buff. Ois. ii., p. 286. Sonn. 

 Buff. VI., p. 72. BoNAT. Tahl. Enajc. Orn. p 196, PI. 91, fig. l.—Francolin d 

 longue queue, Hearne, Voy. d, V Ocean du Kord [Fr. transl.), p. 386. — Telraspha- 

 sianelle, Temm. Pig. et Gall, ill., p. 152. — Long-tailed Grouse, Edwards, Glean. 

 PI. 117. Lath. Syn. iv., p. 732. Id. Suppl. p. 21. — Sharp-failed Grouse, Penn. 

 Arct. Znol. Sp. 181. — Tke Grouse, or Prairie Hen, Lewis and Clark, Exp. ii., p. 

 180, Sp. 1. 



Tins species of Grouse, though long since said to inhabit Virginia, is 

 in fact a recent acquisition to the Fauna of the United States ; for it 

 was only through an awkward mistake that it was ever attributed to 

 that country. Mitchell, upon an inspection of Edwards's bad drawing 

 of this bird, mistaking it for the Ruffed Grouse of that and the neigh- 

 boring states, declared it to be an inhabitant of Virginia ; and upon his 

 authority Edwards gave it as such. This statement, however, led 

 Wilson into the erroneous belief of the identity of the two species, in 

 which he was further confirmed, when after the most careful researches 

 he became satisfied that the Ruffed Grouse was the only species to be 

 found in Virginia. 



The gallant and lamented Governor Lewis gave the first authentic 

 information of the existence of this bird within the limits of these states. 

 He met with it on the upper waters of the Missouri, but observes, that 

 it is peculiarly the inhabitant of the great plains of the Columbia. He 

 states also that the scales, or lateral processes of the toes, with which 

 it is furnished in winter like the rest of its genus, drop ofi' in summer. 



