498 
SPOTTED GROUSE. 
The small feathers covering the nostrils, are deep velvety 
black. The feathers may all be called black as to the ground 
colour, and blackish plumbeous at the base ; on the crown, 
upper sides of the head above the eye, and the anterior portion 
of the neck, they have each two grey bands or small crescents, 
and tipped with a third ; these parts, owing to the grey margin 
of the feathers being very broad, appear nearly all grey ; these 
longer feathers of the lower part of the neck above, and be- 
tween the shoulders, are more broadly and deeply black, each 
with a reddish band, and grey only at tip ; the lowest have 
even two reddish bands, which pass gradually into greyish ; a 
few" of the lateral feathers of the neck are almost pure white ; 
all the remaining feathers of the upper parts of the body have 
two greyish bands, besides a slight tip of the same colour ; 
some of the lowest and longest having even three of these 
bands, besides the tip. The very long upper tail-coverts are 
well distinguished, not only by their shape, but also by their 
colours, being black brown, thickly sprinkled on the margins 
with greyish rusty, and a pretty well defined band of that co- 
lour towards the point, then a narrow one of deep black, and 
are broadly tipped with whitish grey, more or less pure in 
dilferent specimens; their shafts, also, are brownish rusty. 
The sides of the head beneath the eyes, together with the 
throat, are deep black, with pure white spots, the white lying 
curiously upon the feathers, so as to form a band about the 
middle, continued along the shaft, and spreading at the point ; 
but the feathers being small on these parts, the white spots are 
not very conspicuous. The breast, also, is deep black, but 
each feather broadly tipped with pure white, constituting the 
large spots by which this species is so peculiarly distinguished. 
On the flanks, the feathers are at first, from their base, waved 
with black and greyish rusty crescents; but these become 
gradually less pure and defined, and by getting confused, make 
the lowest appear mottled with the two colours ; all are marked 
along the shaft with white, dilating at tip, forming on the 
largest a conspicuous terminal spot. The vent is for a space 
