474 
DUSKY GROUSE. 
DUSKY GROUSE — TETRAO OBSCURUS.— Plate XVIIL 
Female. 
Tetrao obscurus, Say, in Long's Exped. to Rocky Mount, ii. p. 14. Nob. Cat. 
Birds U. S. sp. 209, in Contr. Mad. Lyc, Phila. i. p. 23. Id. Syn. Birds 
U. S. sp. 207, in Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. N. Y. pp. 127, 442. Philadelphia 
Museum, female. Collection of Mr Sabine, in London, male and female- 
TETRAO OBSC UR £75.— Say.* 
Tetrao obscurus. North. Zool. ii. p. 334, plate 69, m., 60, f. 
Linne, in his genus Tetrao^ brought together so great a 
number of species bearing no more than a distant resemblance 
to each other, and differing not only in their external charac- 
* The authors of the Northern Zoology have given a beautiful figure of this 
bird, and have quoted the T. Richardsonii of Douglass as identical with it. This 
I am unable to decide, but should certainly give some weight to the comparisons 
of Dr Richardson, who thinks that those deposited in the Edinburgh Museum 
are only younger specimens. 
The characters given by Mr Douglass are ; — 
T. Richardsonii, Mas. — Pallide plumbeo-griseus fusco sparsim undulatus : 
guise plumis in medio albis ; abdomine saturatiore albo parce maculato ; 
macula lateral! sub nucha alba : rectricibus nigris, apice albicante. 
Foem. — Minor, brunnescenti-grisea, dorso brunneo fasciato ; subtus albo 
frequenter notato rectricibus duobus mediis ferrugineo fasciatis. 
That gentleman mentions a trait in their manners, which he thinks is pecu- 
liar to this species. “ On being started from the dark shadowy pine-trees, their 
usual roosting-place, they descend, or, more properly, allow themselves to fall 
within a few feet of the ground, before they commence flying, a circumstance 
which often leads the sportsman to think he has secured his bird, until the 
object of his attention leaves him, darting and floating through the forest.” 
They were very abundant on the sub- Alpine regions of the Rocky Mountains, 
in lat. 52 deg., and still more numerous on the mountainous districts of the river 
Columbia, in lat. 48 deg. They were lare, however, on the north-west coast. 
The specimens in the Edinburgh Museum have been accurately figured by 
Mr J. Wilson in his Illustrations of Zoology, under the name of T. Richardsonii. 
— Ed. 
