Observations on some Birds from Hudson s Bay. 57 
II. Observations o)i some of the Birds received from the Hudson's Bay 
Company's Territories. Bj Sir William -Jardine, Bart. 
Sir William Jardine, in remarking on the species of grouse 
in the collection, observed that there were two species to which 
the name of obscuriis had been applied. The true dusky 
grouse was first noticed by Mr Say in Major Long's expedition 
to the Hocky Mountains, and was named by him as a new 
species, Tetrao obscurus, at the same time describing it " with 
a rounded tail, having a broad terminal cinereous band." It 
has. an extensive range, and extends to California, the speci- 
men on the table having been obtained by Mr Hepburn in the 
vicinity of San Francisco. In the beautiful ornithological 
volume of the Northern Zoology by Sir John Richardson and 
Mr Swainson, there is a bird excellently represented (Plate 
59) under the same name, but which is quite distinct from the 
San Francisco specimens. 
Some of our members will recollect that a collector was 
sent out some years since on an expedition across the Rocky 
Mountains to Oregon for the purpose of collecting the seeds 
of hardy trees and plants. This is now generally known as the 
" Oregon Expedition." I bargained that if any birds were 
procured they should be sent to me, and among other interest- 
ing birds JeiFreys sent a specimen of a grouse exactly corre- 
sponding with Swainson's figure above quoted.^ It is altogether 
a distinct and darker-coloured bird, and is at once distinguished 
by its broad tail, square at the end and entirely black, with- 
out any terminal cinereous band ; the feathers individually 
broaden towards the tips, and give it a more than usual 
broad and ample appearance. It was found in the vicinity of 
Jasper's House, lat. 53° 20'. It does not agree with any of 
the birds described by the late David Douglass, procured in 
his excursion across the Rocky Mountains, and I cannot find 
the specimen from which Mr Swainson drew his figure ; but 
being quite distinct from the T. obscurus of Say, I have 
applied the specific name of melanurus. 
In regard to the northern gulls, it was remarked that there 
were two birds supposed to be confounded under the common 
name of Larus eburneiis, or Ivory Gull, and it is uncertain 
VOL. JI. H 
