296 DUSKY GROUSE. 



gray- for half an inch towards the tip, the outer plume being moreover 

 of that color on the outer vane : all the tail-feathers are blackish on the 

 inferior surface to within three quarters of an inch of their tips. The 

 feet are red ; the nails blackish ; the tarsus measures three quarters of 

 an inch in length. 



The female is very similar to the male in size and color : the head 

 however is but slightly tinged with vinaceous, the golden violet reflec- 

 tions of the neck are not quite so vivid, and the inferior surface of a 

 paler vinaceous, but graduated as in the male. The lateral tail-feathers 

 are also much more uniform with the middle one, and of course with the 

 back, the three outer only on each side being pearl-gray at tip. This 

 latter character however we should rather attribute to age than sex, if 

 we had not good reason to believe that our female is a perfectly adult 

 bird. 



At first sight, the Zenaida Dove might perhaps be mistaken for the 

 common Turtle Dove [Columha caroUnensts, and marginata of authors), 

 having the same general color and several common markings ; but to 

 mention no other differential character, the short even tail, composed of 

 but twelve feathers, all rounded, the outer bluish-gray at tip, will at 

 once distinguish it from the latter, which belongs to a different group, 

 having the tail long cuneiform, and (what is found in no other American 

 species, not even its close relation the Passenger Pigeon) composed of 

 fourteen tapering and acute feathers, the two middle remarkably so, 

 and the lateral pure white at tip. If any other distinction should be 

 required, the white tips of the secondaries of our new species will afford 

 a good one, as well as the ouier tail-feather, the exterior web of which 

 is blue-gray, crossed, as well as the others, by the black band ; whilst 

 in the 0. earolinenm it is entirely pure white, the black band being con- 

 fined to the inner web. 



TETRAO OBSCURUS. 



DUSKY GROUSE. 



[Plate XVIII. Female.] 



Tetrao obscurus, Sat, in Ung's Exped. to Rocky Mount, n., p. 14. Nob. Cat. Birds 

 U. S. Sp. 209, in Contr. Mad. Lye. Phila. i., p. 23. Id. Si/n. Birds U. S. Sp. 

 207, in Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y. pp. 127, 442. 



LiNNE, in his genus Tetrao, brought together so great a number of 

 species bearing no more than a distant resemblance to each other, and 

 differing not only in their external characters, but even in their peculiar 



