112 SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 



Head rather small, oblong: neck of moderate length; body full. Feet 

 rather short, stout; tarsus roundish, feathered, bare and reticulated behind. 

 Toes of moderate size, with numerous scutella above, but covered over at 

 the base by the hair-like feathers which grow from the sides and the 

 intervening basal membranes, laterally pectinate with long, slender, pro- 

 jecting, flattened scales; first toe small, second a little longer than fourth, 

 third much longer. Claws slender, arched, moderately compressed, rather 

 obtuse; that of the third toe with the inner edge dilated. 



Plumage dense, soft, rather compact, the feathers in general broadly 

 ovate; those on the head and upper part of the neck short, but some on the 

 upper and hind part of the former elongated and forming a slight crest. 

 There is a papillate coloured membrane over the eye, as in the other species;* 

 and on each side of the neck is a large bare space, concealed by the plumage, 

 which I have no doubt is inflated, as in Tetrao Cupido and T. Uropha- 

 sianus, during the love season. Wings rather short, concave, much 

 rounded; the primaries stiff and very narrow, so as to leave large intervals 

 when the wing is extended; the third quill longest, the fourth next, the 

 second shorter than the fifth, the sixth longer than the first. Tail short, 

 much graduated, of sixteen feathers, of which the lateral are three inches 

 shorter than the central; all the feathers are more or less concave, excepting 

 the two middle worn along the inner edge, obliquely and abruptly ter- 

 minated, the two middle projecting an inch beyond the next. 



Bill dusky above, brown beneath; iris light hazel; superciliary membrane 

 vermilion; toes brownish-grey, claws brownish-black. The upper parts are 

 variegated with light red or brownish-orange, brownish-black and white; 

 the black occupying the central part of the feathers, the light red forming 

 angular processes from the margin, generally dotted with black, and a 

 lighter bar near the end; the white being in terminal, triangular, or gutti- 

 form spots on the scapulars and wing-coverts. The alula, primary coverts, 

 secondary coverts and quills are greyish-brown, the coverts spotted and 

 tipped with white; the primaries with white spots on the outer web, the 

 inner tipped with white, as are all the secondaries, of which the outer have 

 two bars of white spots, and the inner are coloured like the back. The tail 

 is white, at the base variegated, and the two middle feathers like the back. 

 Loral space, and a line behind the eye, white; a dusky streak beneath the 

 eye, succeeded by a light coloured one. The throat is reddish-white, with 

 some dusky spots; the fore part and sides of the neck barred with dusky 

 and reddish-white; on the lower part of the neck and fore part of the breast, 

 the dusky bars become first curved, and then arrow-shaped, and so continue 

 narrowing on the hind part of the breast, and part of the sides, of which the 

 upper portion is barred: the abdomen, lower tail-coverts, axillar feathers, 



