316 COCK OF THE PLAINS. 



our specimen. However this may be, the remaining differences mil be 

 better estimated by attending to the following minute and accurate 

 description. 



The female of the Cock of the Plains, represented in the plate of one 

 half the natural size, is from twenty-eight to thirty inches in length. 

 The bill is one inch and a quarter long, perfectly similar to that of 

 T. urogallus, perhaps a trifle less stout, and with the base (if this 

 remarkable character be not accidental in our specimen) farther pro- 

 duced among the feathers of the front. The whole plumage above is 

 blackish, most minutely dotted, mottled and sprinkled with whitish, 

 tinged here and there with very pale yellowish rusty, hardly worth 

 mentioning : on the head, and all the neck, the feathers being small 

 minutely crossed transversely with blackish and whitish lines, gives the 

 plumage quite a minutely dotted appearance : the superciliar line is 

 slightly indicated by more whitish ; on a spot above the eye, in the space 

 between the bill and eye, and along the mouth beneath, the black pre- 

 dominates, being nearly pure : on the throat, on the contrary, it is the 

 white that prevails, so as to be whitish dotted with black : on the lower 

 portion of the neck the black again is the prevailing color, the black 

 feathers there being nearly tipped with grayish ; the sides of the neck 

 are pure white for a space ; from the lower portion of the neck to the 

 upper tail-coverts inclusively, the back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and 

 secondaries, the blackish feathers have each two or three yellowish white 

 bands, which are broader especially on the upper part of the back, and 

 are moreover sprinkled with white somewhat tinged with rusty : the 

 scapulars and wing-coverts are besides shafted with white somewhat 

 dilating towards the point, the scapulars being of a deeper black ; the 

 spurious wing and primaries are plain dusky with paler edges, the outer 

 with some indications of whitish dots (generally found in Grouse) on the 

 outer vane, but no regular white spots ; the secondaries are tipped with 

 white, and those which are next to the primaries nearly plain on their 

 inner web ; the primaries are rather slender, the inferior surface of the 

 wings is of a very pale silvery gray ; the under wing-coverts and long 

 axillary feathers being pure silvery white, excepting on the lining of 

 the wing, which is dusky blackish. The wings are twelve inches 

 long. The breast is grayish, somewhat mottled with black ; on each 

 side below is a pure white space, some of the feathers of which are 

 tipped or banded with black ; the large feathers of the flanks are 

 blackish shafted with white, crossed by several whitish bands and 

 sprinkled with yellowish : a broad oblong patch of deep brownish black 

 occupies the whole of the belly and vent, the outer feathers being 

 shafted with white, and broadly white at the point of their outer webs. 

 The femorals and small feathers of the tarsus extending between the 

 toes are yellowish gray minutely waved with blackish: the tarsus 



