THE PINNATED GROUSE. 93 



mottled; the tail greyish-brown, becoming black toward the end, the middle 

 feathers undulated like the back, and having four grey bands with a terminal 

 white one. The sides of the head and the throat are greyish-white, undu- 

 latingly barred with brown; the general colour of the fore-neck is greyish- 

 brown, with pale sienna bands; on the breast the colour is brownish-grey, 

 and the colours and markings of the rest of the under parts are as in the 

 male, but paler. 



Length to end of tail 19^ inches; wing from flexure 9; tail 6^; bill along 

 the ridge -ff . 



In a specimen in my possession, killed by Mr. Townsend on the "Colum- 

 bia river, Sept. 26, 1834," the tail is considerably rounded, the lateral 

 feathers being 7 twelfths shorter than the longest remaining, the middle 

 feathers being lost. The tail is deep black, with a terminal band of ash- 

 grey, half an inch in breadth. It is therefore probable, that when the tail is 

 unworn, it is distinctly rounded, and tipped with grey, 



THE PINNATED GROUSE. 



+-Tetrao cupido, Linn. 

 PLATE CCXCVL— Males and Female. 



It has been my good fortune to study the habits of this species of Grouse, 

 at a period when, in the district in which I resided, few other birds of any 

 kind were more abundant. I allude to the lower parts of the States of 

 Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. Twenty-five years and more 

 have elapsed since many of the notes to which I now recur were written, 

 and at that period I little imagined that the observations which I recorded 

 should ever be read by any other individuals than those composing my own 

 family, all of whom participated in my admiration of the works of Nature. 



The Barrens of Kentucky are by no means so sterile as they have 

 sometimes been represented. Their local appellation, however, had so much 

 deceived me, before I travelled over them, that I expected to find nothing 

 but an undulated extent of rocky ground, destitute of vegetation, and 

 perforated by numberless caverns. My ideas were soon corrected. I saw 



Vol. V. 13 



