212 
TETR.AO UR0PIIAS1ANUS. 
the middle ones, are more thickly sprinkled with V.jje 
orange, taking the appearance of hands on the 
feathers, their orange coloured tip being, moreover 
so pure, and also sprinkled. . s : 
The present bird comes from the Rocky Mounts’^ 
it is a male, and remarkably distinguished fro»' ^ 
common ones of his species, by having the tail-fed ..j 
entirely black to the end. This difference 1 
observed to be constant in other specimens front 
same wild locality ; whilst all the northern specii 11 ^,,. 
of which I have examined a great number, are * ^ 
distinguished by the broad rufous tip, as in ' ( r 
described, and as also described by Linne and all 0 J 
writers, who have even considered that as an esstjfr^ 
mark of the species. The Rocky Mountain sped 1 ® a 
are, moreover, somewhat larger, and their toes, tb° A 
likewise strongly pectinated, are, perhaps, soin e "jjp 
less so, and the tail-coverts are pure white at j lf 
But, Heaven forbid that our statements should 
the remotest suspicion, that these slight abeiT* .^t 
are characteristic of different species! If we 
venture an opinion not corroborated by observ'd ^ 
we would say, that we should not be astonished, >* m 
most obvious discrepancy, that of the tail, were eD 11 , ^ 
owing to season, the red tip being the full sp’Jjjt 
plumage ; though it is asserted, that this species doe s 
vary in its plumage with the seasons. 
45 . TETRAO VROPIIASIAinrS, BONAPARTE. 
COCK OF THE PLAINS. 
BONAPARTE, PLATE XXI. FIG. II. 
Ill'' 1 " 
It is with the liveliest satisfaction that we are cm 1 
finally to enrich the North American Fauna ' vlt, i [ 1 |il l 
name and description of this noble bird; jj 
must have formed from the earliest periods a l )r ’!'' r jl)' 
ornament of the distant wilds of the west. Bj* cf ~ 
inferior to the turkev in size, beauty, and nsefu 1 
ley in size, beauty, 
the cock of the plains is entitled to the first p 
lac* 
