112 
SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 
Head rather small, oblong ; neck of moderate length ; body full. Feet 
rather short, stout ; tarsus roundish, feathered, bare, and reticulated behind. 
Toes of moderate size, with numerous scutella above, but covered over at 
the base by the hair-like feathers which grow from the sides and the 
intervening basal membranes, laterally pectinate with long, slender, pro- 
jecting, flattened scales ; first toe small, second a little longer than fourth, 
third much longer. Claws slender, arched, moderately compressed, rather 
obtuse ; that of the third toe with the inner edge dilated. 
Plumage dense, soft, rather compact, the feathers in general broadly 
ovate ; those on the head and upper part of the neck short, but some on the 
upper and hind part of the former elongated and forming a slight crest. 
There is a papillate coloured membrane over the eye, as in the other 
species ; and on each side of the neck is a large bare space, concealed by 
the plumage, which I have no doubt is inflated, as in Tetrao Cupido and T. 
Urophasianus, during the love season. Wings rather short, concave, much 
rounded ; the primaries stiff and very narrow, so as to leave large intervals 
when the wing is extended ; the third quill longest, the fourth next, the 
second shorter than the fifth, the sixth longer than the first. Tail short, 
much graduated, of sixteen feathers, of which the lateral are three inches 
shorter than the central ; all the feathers are more or less concave, except- 
ing the two middle worn along the inner edge, obliquely and abruptly 
terminated, the two middle projecting an inch beyond the next. 
Bill dusky above, brown beneath ; iris light hazel ; superciliary membrane 
vermilion ; toes brownisli-grey, claws brownish-black. The upper parts are 
variegated with light red or brownish-orange, brownish-black and white ; 
the black occupying the central part of the feathers, the light red forming- 
angular processes from the margin, generally dotted with black, and a 
lighter bar near the end ; the white being in terminal, triangular, or gutti- 
form spots on the scapulars and wing-coverts. The alula, primary coverts, 
secondary coverts and quills are greyish-brown, the coverts spotted and 
.tipped with white ; the primaries with white spots on the outer web, the 
inner tipped with white, as are all the secondaries, of which the outer have 
two bgrs of white spots, and the inner are coloured like the back. The tail 
is white, at the base variegated, and the two middle feathers like the back. 
Loral space, and a line behind the eye, white ; a dusky sti*eak beneath the 
eye, succeeded by a light coloured one. The throat is reddish-white, with 
some dusky spots ; the fore part and sides of the neck barred with dusky 
and reddish-white ; on the lower part of the neck and fore part of the breast, 
the dusky bars become first curved, and then arrow-shaped, and so continue 
narrowing on the hind part of the breast, and part of the sides, of which the 
upper portion is barred ; the abdomen, lower tail-coverts, axillar feathers, 
