490 
SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 
sus is two inclies long ; the slender hair-like feathers covering 
it, are, as well as the femorals, of a dingy greyish white, ob- 
soletely waved with dusky ; the toes are strongly pectinated, 
and are, as well as the nails, of a blackish dusky, while the 
long processes are whitish. 
The foregoing minute description is chiefly taken from a 
handsome male specimen from Arctic America. There is no 
difference between the sexes, at least we have not been able 
to detect any in all the specimens of both that we have ex- 
amined ; hence we conclude, that the difference generally 
described by authors, and which we have ourselves copied in 
our Synopsis, that of the breast being chocolate brown in the 
male, and uniform with the rest of the plumage in the female, 
does not exist. The female is merely less bright and glossy. 
Both sexes, like other grouse, have a papillous red membrane 
over the eye, not always seen in stuffed skins, and which is 
said to be very vivid in the male of this species, in the breed- 
ing-season. This membrane, an inch in length, becomes dis- 
tended, and projects above the eye in the shape of a small crest, 
three-eighths of an inch high. The male at this season, like 
that of other species, and indeed of most gallinaceous birds, 
struts about in a very stately manner, carrying himself very 
upright ; the middle feathers of the tail are more or less elon- 
gated, in young birds scarcely exceeding the adjoining by half 
an inch. 
The spring plumage is much more bright and glossy than 
the autumnal, and also exhibits differences in the spots and 
markings. The specimen we have selected for our plate, on 
account of its being the only one we had from the United 
States territory, is a female in the autumnal dress, and was 
brought from the Rocky Mountains. We think proper to in- 
sert here in detail the description we took from it at the time, 
thus enabling the reader to contrast it with that made from a 
northern specimen in spring plumage, rather than point out 
each and all the numerous, and at the same time minute and 
unimportant variations. 
