110 
SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 
Adult Female. 
The female is much smaller than the male, and diffei-s in being destitute 
of the bare skin on the fore neck, in having the superciliary membranes 
smaller, the plumage entirely of ordinary texture ; the tail less elongated, 
with the feathers less narrow and ending in a rounded point. All the upper 
parts, fore neck, and sides are variegated with brownish-black, yellowish 
grey and whitish, disposed nearly as in the male ; the throat whitish, the 
fore part of the breast white, the middle part brownish-black, the legs and 
tarsi as in the male, as are the quills ; the tail-feathers mottled like the 
back and tipped with white. 
Length to end of tail 22 inches ; wing from flexure 101 ; tail If ; bill 
along the ridge 1 t 4 j ; tarsus l 1 — 6 ; middle toe 1||, its claw r %. 
The size of this species has been exaggerated, it having been by some 
compared to the Turkey, and by othei’S to the Great Wood Grouse of 
Europe, Tetrao urogallus, whereas, in fact, it seems not much to exceed 
Tetrao hybridus. In some individuals, as I am informed by Mr. Town- 
send, the liair-like shafts of the feathers on the sides of the neck are con- 
siderably longer than in my figure of the male. 
SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 
Tetrao Phasianellus, Linn. 
PLATE CCXCVIII.— Male and Female. 
This is another species of our birds with the habit's of which I am 
entirely unacquainted. Dr. Richardson’s account of it is as follows 
“ The northern limit of the range of the Sharp-tailed Grouse is Great Slave 
Lake, in the sixty-fix’st parallel ; and its most southern recorded station is 
in latitude 41°, on the Missouri. It abounds on the outskirts of the Sas- 
katchewan plains, and is found throughout the woody districts of the Fur 
Countries, haunting open glades or low thickets on the borders of lakes, par- 
ticularly in the neighbourhood of the trading paths, where the forests have 
been partially cleared. In winter it perches generally on trees, in summer 
is much on the gi’ound ; in both seasons assembling in coveys of from ten to 
