X10 SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 



Adult Female. 



The female is much smaller than the male, and differs in being destitute 

 of the bare skin on the fore neck, in having the superciliary membranes 

 smaller, the plumage entirely of ordinary texture; the tail less elongated, 

 with the feathers less narrow and ending in a rounded point. All the upper 

 parts, fore neck and sides are variegated with brownish-black, yellowish- 

 grey and whitish, disposed nearly as in the male; the throat whitish, the fore 

 part of the breast white, the middle part brownish-black, the legs and tarsi 

 as in the male, as are the quills; the tail-feathers mottled like the back and 

 tipped with white. 



Length to end of tail 22 inches; wing from flexure 10^; tail 7f; bill along 

 the ridge 1 T 4 2-; tarsus lyf; middle toe lyf, its claw -£%. 



The size of this species has been exaggerated, it having been by some 

 compared to the Turkey, and by others to the Great Wood Grouse of 

 Europe, Tetrao Urogallus, whereas, in fact, it seems not much to exceed 

 Tetrao hybridus. In some individuals, as I am informed by Mr. Town- 

 send, the hair-like shafts of the feathers on the sides of the neck are con- 

 siderably longer than in my figure of the male. 



SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 



+Tetrao Phasianellus, Linn. 



PLATE CCXCVIIL— Male and Female. 



This is another species of our birds with the habits of which I am 

 entirely unacquainted. Dr. Richardson's account of it is as follows: — "The 

 northern limit of the range of the Sharp-tailed Grouse is Great Slave Lake, 

 in the sixty-first parallel; and its most southern recorded station is in lati- 

 tude 41°, on the Missouri. It abounds on the outskirts of the Saskatchewan 

 plains, and is found throughout the woody districts of the Fur Countries, 

 haunting open glades or low thickets on the borders of lakes, particularly in 

 the neighbourhood of the trading paths, where the forests have been 

 partially cleared. In winter it perches generally on trees, in summer is 

 much on the ground; in both seasons assembling in coveys of from ten to 



