DUSKY GROUSE. 
483 
width ; all are thickly dotted with grey for half an inch at tip, 
which in the specimen figured, but by no means so much so in 
others, gives the tail an appearance of having a broad terminal 
band of cinereous sprinkled with blackish. This circumstance 
evinces the inutility of describing with the extreme minute- 
ness to which we have descended in this instance, as, after all 
the pains bestowed, the description is only that of an individual. 
The tail is pure black beneath, considerably paler at tip and 
on the undulations of the middle feathers. The tarsus is three 
quarters of an inch long ; the feathers with which it is cover- 
ed, together with the femorals, are pale greyish ochreous, 
undulated with dusky; the toes are dusky, and the nails 
blackish. 
The male is but little larger, and entirely, but not intensely, 
black. We can, however, say very little about it, having taken 
but a hasty and imperfect view of a specimen belonging to Mr 
Sabine of London, and writing merely from recollection. The 
tail-feathers are wholly black, perfectly plain and unspotted ; 
and in the female and young, they are but slightly mottled, as 
is seen in almost all grouse. Mr Sabine has long had this bird 
in his possession, and intended dedicating it, as a new species, 
to that distinguished traveller. Dr Richardson. 
