C 395 3 



bring them under the fame fpecies, for it is 

 known that the males of all the grous tribe, 

 and indeed of moft of the gallinaceous birds, 

 are ufed to fbut in a very ftately manner, and 

 that the colours of their plumage are much 

 more diftincT: than thpfe of the females. But 

 the fpecific difference alone, which Linneus 

 affigns to the cock of the wood, abfolutely 

 excludes our Hudfon's Bay fpecies ; he calls 

 it Tetrao pedibus hirfutis, cauda rotundata, 

 axillis albis. Whoever examines Mr. Ed- 

 wards's figure, and the fpecimens now in the 

 Society's pofleffion, will find the tail very 

 fhort, but pointed, the two middle feathers 

 being half an inch longer than the reft, (Mr, 

 Edwards fays two inches) and the axilla?, or 

 moulders, by no means white: befides this 

 difference, the colour and iize of the Hud~ 

 ion's Bay bird are likewife vaftly different 

 from thofe of the cock of the wood. Its length 

 is 17 inches, its breadth 24, and, as P4r. 

 Edwards juftly fays, it is fomewhat bigger 

 than the common pheafant. The great cock 

 of the wood is as big as a turky.j and 

 its female, which "_ is much lefs, however 

 far exceeds our bird, it being 26 inches long, 

 and 40 broad. See Britifh Zool. octavo, 

 p. 200. The figures given of the fe- 

 male of the T..Urogailus, or great cock of 

 the wood, in the Br. Zool. folio, plate M *, 

 and the Blanche enluminee 75, will ferve 

 upon companion as a convincing proof of 

 rhe vaft difference there is between the Hud« 

 fon's Bay pheafant grous and the European cock 

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