384 SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 
blackish on the whole of their outer web; all the other lateral 
feathers, entirely concealed by the coverts, are pure white at 
the point, but with dusky shafts, and are more or less broadly 
dark cinereous at base ; these feathers are very rigid, and of a 
curious form, tapering from the base to the point, where they 
suddenly dilate; they are deeply emarginated at tip, and their 
inner lobe projects considerably; the tarsus is two inches 
long; the slender hair-like feathers covering it are, as well 
as the femorals, of a dingy greyish white, obsoletely waved 
with dusky ; the toes are strongly pectinated, and are, as well 
as the nails, of a blackish dusky, while the long processes are 
whitish. 
The foregoing minute description is chiefly taken from a 
handsome male specimen from Arctic America. ‘There is no 
difference between the sexes, at least we have not been able 
to detect any in all the specimens of both that we have 
examined; hence we conclude that the difference generally 
described by authors, and which we have ourselves copied in 
our Synopsis, that of the breast being chocolate-brown in the 
male, and uniform with the rest of the plumage in the female, 
does not exist. The female is merely less bright and glossy. 
Both sexes, like other grouse, have a papillous red membrane 
over the eye, not always seen in stuffed skins, and which is 
said to be very vivid in the male of this species in the breed- 
ing-season. ‘This membrane, an inch in length, becomes dis- 
tended, and projects above the eye in the shape of a small 
crest, three-eighths of an inch high. 'T'he male at this season, 
like that of other species, and indeed of most gallinaceous 
birds, struts about in a very stately manner, carrying himself 
very upright; the middle feathers of the tail are more or less 
elongated, in young birds scarcely exceeding the adjoining by 
half an inch. 
The spring plumage is much more bright and glossy than 
the autumnal, and also exhibits differences in the spots and 
markings. ‘The specimen we have selected for our plate, on 
account of its being the only one we had from the United 


