392 SPOTTED GROUSE. 
bands, besides the tip. The very long upper tail-coverts are 
well distinguished, not only by their shape, but also by their 
colours, being black brown, thickly sprinkled on the margins 
with greyish rusty, and a pretty well defined band of that 
colour towards the point, then a narrow one of deep black, 
and are broadly tipt with whitish grey, more or less pure in 
different specimens; their shafts, also, are brownish rusty. 
The sides of the head beneath the eyes, together with the 
throat, are deep black, with pure white spots, the white lying 
curiously upon the feathers, so as to form a band about the 
middle, continued along the shaft, and spreading at the point ; 
but the feathers being small on these parts, the white spots are 
not very conspicuous. The breast, also, is deep black, but 
each feather broadly tipt with pure white, constituting the 
large spots by which this species is so peculiarly distinguished. 
On the flanks, the feathers are at first, from their base, waved 
with black and greyish rusty crescents; but these become 
eradually less pure and defined, and by getting confused, make 
the lowest appear mottled with the two colours ; all are marked 
along the shaft with white, dilating at tip, forming on the 
largest a conspicuous terminal spot. The vent is for a space 
pure white, the tips of its downy feathers being of that colour: 
the under tail-coverts are deep black, pure white for half an 
inch at their tip, and with a white mark along the shaft be- 
sides. The wings are seven inches long, the fourth primary 
alone being somewhat longer than the rest. The upper co- 
verts and scapularies are blackish, waved and mottled with 
greyish rusty ; the longest scapularies have a small terminal 
spot of pure white along their shaft. The smaller coverts are 
merely edged with greyish rusty, and in very perfect speci- 
mens they are even plain; the under wing-coverts are brown- 
ish dusky, edged with greyish, some of the largest, as well as 
the long axillary feathers, having white shafts, dilating into 
a terminal spot ; the remaining inferior surface of the wing is 
bright silvery grey ; the spurious wing and the quills are plain 
dusky brown, the secondaries being slightly tipt and edged 


