ART. XIII.— Osteology of the IVorth American Tetra- 



onidse. 



By R. TV, SImfeldt, M. D., First liieiit. Wled. Dcpt. U. S. A. 



As far as the Tetraonidce are represented in our avi-fauna, and the 

 varieties are not few in number, there has been but little question among 

 modern ornithologists as to the place they should occupy, and the man- 

 ner in which they should be classified and arranged. In the writings of 

 that distinguished naturalist, my friend Dr. Coues, we find him adher- 

 ing to the excellent and natural division of the Family into the two sub- 

 families, Tetraonince. the true Grouse, and Odontophorince, the Partridges, 

 with their genera and species, truly stating, as he does so, that the inter- 

 relation among the various representatives is so close that no violence 

 is offered by the arrangement. Our labors have been confined princi- 

 pally to the study of the osteology of the Grouse, a complete collection 

 of which we have before us, and in this memoir we will only occasion- 

 ally refer to the osteological departures as observed in some of the 

 Quails. 



No country in the world can boast of a fairer collection of species of 

 these noble birds than we find among the six North American genera, as 

 seen in Tetrao, CentrocercuSj Pedicecetes, Ctqndonia, Bonasa, and Lagopus ; 

 and our Partridges yet exceed these in their brilliancy of plumage and 

 oddity of some of their feathery decorations. 



The anatomical peculiarities of the order GalUnce has been the favorite 

 theme of many an able writer, and we find Huxley, Owen, Gengenbaur, 

 Coues, Parker, and others, in their several works, dwelling largely upon 

 the osteology of these birds, ably exposing the observed characteristics 

 of structure both by pen and pencil; but, as far as our knowledge extends, 

 no one has as yet devoted himself to the production of a paper devoted 

 exclusively to the osteology of the North American Grouse, such as the 

 writer here proposes to undertake with every hope of success, aided 

 as he has been by the kind assistance of many friends in different parts 

 of the Union, in sending him valuable material in tlie way of represent- 

 atives of the Family. 



The author trusts that he may be allowed to carry out on some future 

 occasion his present intention of devoting himself to the study of other 

 systems of avian anatomy ; in which event myology, the eye and ear, 

 and resx)iratory apparatus, will all receive their due share of labor ; but 



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