SPOTTED GROUSE. 303 
externally with paler, and those nearest the body somewhat 
mottled with greyish rusty at the point and on the inner 
vane ; the primaries, with the exception of the first, are slightly 
marked with whitish grey on their outer edge, but are entirely 
destitute of white spots. The tail is six inches long, well 
rounded, and composed of only sixteen feathers. ‘These are 
black, with a slight sprinkling of bright reddish on the outer 
web at base, under the coverts, which disappears almost en- 
tirely with age; all are bright dark rusty for half an inch 
at their tip, this colour itself being finely edged and shafted 
with black. The tarsus measures an inch and a half; its 
feathers, together with the femorals, are dingy grey, slightly 
waved with dusky; the toes are dusky; the lateral scales 
dingy whitish, and the nails blackish. 
The female is smaller than the male, being more than an 
inch shorter. The general plumage is much more varied, with 
less of black, but much more of rusty. There is a tinge of 
rufous on the feathers of the nostrils; those of the head, neck, 
and upper part of the back are black, with two or three bright 
bands of orange rusty, and tipt with grey; there is more of 
the grey tint on the neck, on the lower part of which above, 
the orange bands are broader ; all the remaining parts of the 
body above, including the tail-coverts, are more confusedly 
banded and mottled with duller rusty, orange, and grey, on a 
blackish ground, these colours themselves being also sprinkled 
with a little black ; the sides of the head, the throat, and all 
the neck below, are dull rusty orange, each feather varied 
with black; on the lower portion of the breast, the black 
bands are broad and very deep, alternating equally with the 
orange rusty, and even gradually encroaching upon the ground 
colour ; the breast is deep black, each feather, as well as those 
of the under parts, including the lower tail-coverts, are broadly 
tipt with pure white, forming over all the inferior surface 
very large and close spots, each feather having besides one or 
two rusty orange spots, much paler and duller on the belly, 
and scarcely appearing when the plumage lies close: the 
