190 
TETRAO OBSCURUS. 
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genus Tetrao. I. — Lagopus, which represents it 111 ^ 
Arctic Polar regions ; for whose climate they * 
admirably adapted by being clothed to the very 11 .. I 
in plumage suited to the temperature, furnished 11 tr , 
dantly with thick down, upon which the feather^ 
closely applied. The colour of their winter pi 11 . 111 ,,)* 
is an additional protection against rapacious am" 1 ^ 
by rendering it difficult to distinguish them fro ® 1 ^ 
snows by which they are surrounded. II. — n-s 1 
which is distributed over the more temperate cliR^.y 
»rml rlnwn to th<» tnps. * .,*0 
A 
the legs being still feathered down to the toes. - 
Bonasia, a new division, of which we propose ^ 
bonasia, L. as the type, in which only the upper P , ft i 
of the tarsus is feathered. These occasionally dr sl 
still farther south than the others, inhabiting 
plains as well as mountainous regions, to which ^ 
of the second section are more particularly atta* • |i 
But the entire genus is exclusively boreal, being 
found in Europe, and the northern countries of A 1,|f ( ,i 
and Asia. The long and sharp-winged grous‘\ f ( 
Pterocles of Temminck, which represent, or rl1 . ,il 
replace these birds in the arid and sandy countP® 8 ^ 
Africa and Asia, a single species inhabiting 
southern extremity of Europe, we consider, in cOB 1 ^,, 
with all modern authors, as a totally distinct fT 1 jji 
That group, composed of but few species, resort 
most desert regions, preferring dry and burning 
to the cool shelter of the woods. These oceans, a* . ,p’ , 
might be termed, of sand, so terrific to the eye 
imagination of the human traveller, thev boldly tel 1 , s o 
' \ . . .’-..fjl 
found in certain spots. Over the intervening 
to cross in large companies in search’ of the 
indispensable to life, but there so scarce, and 
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they pass with extraordinary rapidity, and at a p ^ 
elevation, being the only gallinaceous birds turn^j;, 
with wings of the form required for such flights, 
however, is not the only peculiarity in which p/ 
aberrate from the rest of their order, and appro * 6 
pigeons, being said to lay but few eggs, the J 
