BLACK GROUSE. 89 



sponds with this structure ; the flight is powerful, 

 but is neither in general long sustained, nor applied 

 to any peculiar habits in the species. Mr. Swainson 

 has from this form made his sub-genus " Lyrurus? 

 considering it as the fissirostral type, and bearing 

 analogy, in its forked tail and glossy plumage, to the 

 Drongo Shrikes of Africa and India. In the female 

 the form is similar, but the proportions are smaller, 

 and the divariation of the tail scarcely exceeds half 

 an inch in depth. The ground colour of the entire 

 plumage is pale brownish-orange, becoming nearly 

 yellowish-white on tlie throat, breast, and belly; 

 and on the sides of the neck, slightly tinged with a 

 shade of vinous purple ; all is barred with black, 

 intermixed with wavy broken lines of the same 

 colour ; on the wings and shoulders the centre of 

 the feathers are black, but the shaft runs through 

 of a paler colour, broadening and becoming paler 

 towards the tip, as in the partridges ; the bill in 

 both sexes is nearly black. This species does not 

 seem so liable to variation as some of the other 

 Tetraonidoe. "We possess a female or grey hen, shot 

 by the late Sir Sidney Beckwith, entirely of a dull 

 whitish grey, having the cross markings of a darker 

 and browner shade. 



LAGOPUS. Generic characters. Bill very short, 

 clothed at the base with feathers, which conceal 

 the nostrils ; wings short, somewhat rounded, 

 with the third and fourth quills longest ; tail 

 short, and nearly square at the end ; tarsi and 



