TETRAONIDiE. 345 



coombe," in a soft, hollow tone. Its food consists of various berries, and its 

 flesh is very palatable. Mr. Alexander Stewart, a Chief-factor of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, who has often crossed the mountains, informs me that the males 

 of this species fight each other with such animosity, that a man may take one of 

 them up in his hand before it will quit its antagonist. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a male, killed by Mr. Drummond on the Rocky Mountains. 



Colour. — Upper plumage very dark liver- or blackish-brown ; the wings paler ; the top of 

 the head glossed with hair-brown; the back of the neck very minutely undulated with lead- 

 grey ; the scapulars, tertiaries, and many of the wing coverts tipped with grey, and, together 

 with the rump, finely undulated with yellowish-brown. Quills and borders of the wing above 

 and below clove-brown ; the secondaries edged round the tips with grey, and mottled on the 

 edges with greyish-brown. Tail deep black. Under plumage : — Sides of the head and front 

 of the neck pitch-black, passing to blackish-grey and dark lead-colour on the breast and 

 middle of the belly. Lores, cheeks, chin, and upper part of the throat, barred with white. 

 Vent brownish-white. Shortest under tail coverts white, intermediate ones barred with black 

 and white, the longest black, tipped with white. Flanks blackish-brown, finely undulated 

 with yellowish-brown, striped on the shafts and edged on the tips with white. Axillary 

 feathers and greater part of the inner wing coverts pure white. On the side of the neck next 

 the shoulders the base of the plumage is also pure white*. Tarsal feathers greyish-brown. 

 Bill, toes, and nails blackish-brown. Papillated comb over the eye orange-yellow. — The 

 yellowish-brown undulated lines on the rump are nearly obsolete in some specimens. 



The female has the grey neck barred with dark-brown, the base of the neck, back, scapu- 

 lars, and tertiaries, crossed by narrow bars of brownish-yellow, one or two on each feather, 

 the tips finely undulated with brownish-grey ; which tips are much broader on the rump and 

 tail coverts. The wing coverts, fore part of the neck, and the flanks, are barred and mottled 

 with a paler colour, approaching to wood-brown. The central pair of tail feathers are crossed 

 by five mottled bars and tipped with spotted chestnut, and there are some indistinct indications 

 of bars on the lateral feathers. The rest of the plumage as in the male. — Another female 

 specimen, of the same dimensions, but probably an older bird, has the upper plumage of a 

 paler liver-brown, and the bars and mottlings fewer, more indistinct, and of a greyer hue. 

 The bars on the middle tail feathers are replaced by some slight marginal mottling. This 

 bird has the upper mandible sinuated. — Vide vignette. 



Form — Bill narrower than that of T. umbellus. No crest. Fourth quill the longest ; 

 secondaries rounded, with a projection of the shaft more conspicuous than in T. umbellus, 

 where it is confined to some of the posterior secondaries. Tail long and square, composed 

 of twenty broad feathers, broadest and truncated at the ends: in the female, the tail feathers 



* At this part the plumage of the upper and under surfaces of the neck separates and admits of the naked skin 

 being puffed out at the pleasure of the bird. — R. 



2 Y 



