506 
COCK OF THE PLAINS. 
or banded with black ; the large feathers of the flanks are 
blackish, shafted with white, crossed by several whitish bands, 
and sprinkled with yellowish ; a broad oblong patch of deep 
brownish black occupies the whole of the belly and vent, the 
outer feathers being shafted with white, and broadly white at 
the point of their outer webs ; the femorals and small feathers 
of the tarsus extending between the toes are yellowish grey, 
minutely waved with blackish ; the tarsus measures two inches ; 
the toes are dusky black, and the pectinated row of processes 
long, strong, and dingy whitish ; the nails, blackish ; the whole 
base of the plumage, with the exception of that of the neck 
beneath, which is white, is of a dusky grey. The tail is ten 
inches long, and in colour, is, as well as its coverts, in har- 
mony with the rest of the plumage ; the ground colour is 
blackish, and crossed, or rather mottled, with bands of whitish 
spots disposed irregularly, between which are small additional 
darker spots ; the two middle ones are mottled all over, but 
the others are almost immaculate on their inner vane, and at 
the point ; hence the lower surface of the unexpanded tail is 
of a silvery grey, much darker than that of the wings ; at the 
very tip of the tail-feathers, the middle excepted, appears a 
very small whitish spot, the two outer pairs being rather 
broadly yellowish white, dotted with blackish on that part ; 
the tail is composed of twenty feathers, the highest number 
ever met with in any tribe of birds. Although it appears 
strongly cuneiform, owing to the remarkable shape and curve 
of the feathers, it is, when expanded and properly examined, 
nothing more than much rounded; the two in the middle, 
which are the longest, reaching but a trifle beyond the adjoin- 
ing, and so on in succession, the difference in length increasing 
progressively, but very gradually at first, and more and more 
as they are distant from the centre, there being nearly an inch 
difference between the third and second, and full that between 
the second and the outer, which is only six inches long, v»^hile 
the middle is ten. All the twenty are narrow, tapering, acute, 
and falciform, turning inward. Those toward the middle are 
