BLACK GROUSE. 
89 
sponds with this structure ; the flight is powerful, 
hut is neither in general long sustained, nor applied 
to any peculiar habits in the species. Mr. Swainson 
has from this form made his sub-genus “ Lyrurus ," 
considering it as the fissirostral type, and bearing 
analogy, in its forked tail and glossy plumage, to the 
Drongo Shrikes of Africa and India. In the female 
the form is similar, but the proportions are smaller, 
and the divariation of the tail scarcely exceeds half 
an inch in depth. The ground colour of the entire 
plumage is pale brownish-orange, becoming nearly 
yellowish-white on the throat, breast, and belly; 
and on the sides of the neck, slightly tinged with a 
shade of vinous purple ; all is barred with black, 
intermixed with wavy broken lines of the same 
colour ; on the wings and shoulders the centre of 
the feathers are black, but the shaft runs through 
of a paler colour, broadening and becoming paler 
towards the tip, as in the partridges; the bill in 
both sexes is nearly black. This species does not 
seem so liable to variation as some of the other 
Tetraonidce . M r e possess a female or grey hen, shot 
by the late Sir Sidney Beckwith, entirely of a dull 
whitish grey, having the cross markings of a darker 
and browner shade. 
Lagopus. — Generic characters. — Bill very short, 
clothed at the base with feathers, which conceal 
the nostrils ; wings short, somewhat rounded, 
with the third and fourth quills longest ; tail 
short, and nearly square at the end ; tarsi and 
