SPOTTED GROUSE. 313 



of the head, the throat, and all the neck belo,w, are dull rusty orange, 

 each feather varied with black ; on the lower portion of the breast the 

 black bands are broad and very deep, alternating equally with the 

 orange rusty, and even gradually encroaching upon the ground color. 

 The breast is deep black, each feather, as well as those of the under 

 parts, including the lower tail-coverts, are broadly tipped with pure 

 white, forming over all the inferior surface very large and close spots, 

 each feather having besides one or two rusty orange spots, much paler 

 and duller on the belly, and scarcely appearing when the plumage lies 

 close : the feathers of the flanks are blackish, deeper at first, and barred 

 with very bright orange, then much mottled with dull grayish rusty, 

 each having a triangular white spot near the tip. The wings and tail 

 are similar to those of the male, the variegation of the scapulars and 

 upper coverts being only of a much more rusty tinge, dull orange in the 

 middle on the shaft, all the larger feathers having moreover a white 

 streak along the shaft ending in a pure white spot, wanting in the male. 

 The outer edge of the primaries is more broadly whitish, and the 

 tertials are dingy white at the point, being also crossed with dull orange ; 

 the tail-feathers, especially the middle ones, are more thickly sprinkled 

 with rusty orange, taking the appearance of bands on the middle 

 feathers, their orange-colored tip being moreover not so pure, and also 

 sprinkled. 



The bird represented in the plate comes from the Rocky Mountains : 

 it is a male, and remarkably distinguished from the common ones of his 

 species by having the tail-feathers entirely black to the end. This 

 difference I have observed to be constant in other specimens from the 

 same wild locality; whilst all the northern specimens, of which I have 

 examined a great number, are alike distinguished by the broad rufous 

 tip, as in those described, and as also described by Linn^ and all other 

 writers, who have even considered that as an essential mark of the 

 species. The Rocky Mountain specimens are moreover somewhat larger, 

 and their toes, though likewise strongly pectinated, are perhaps some- 

 what less so, and the tail-coverts are pure white at tip, as represented 

 in the plate. But heaven forbid that our statements should excite 

 the remotest suspicion that these slight aberrations are characteristic 

 of different species. If we might venture an opinion not corroborated 

 by observation, we would say, that we should not be astonished if the 

 most obvious discrepancy, that of the tail, were entirely owing to season, 

 the red tip being the full spring plumage ; though it is asserted that 

 this species does not vary in its plumage with the seasons. However 

 this may be, we have thought proper to give a representation of the 

 anomalous male bird from the Rocky Mountains in our plate, whilst the 

 female, placed with the Cock of the Plains, that its reduced size may 

 be properly estimated, has been chosen among the ordinary specimens 



