SHARP-TAILED GROUS. 
669 
verse wavy crescents. The ground color of all the feathers is black. 
Upper tail-coverts black-brown, mottled on their margins with grey- 
ish rusty, and broadly tipped with whitish-grey. Breast deep black, 
the feathers broadly terminated with white. Under tail-coverts deep 
black, pure white for half an inch at their tips. Under wing-coverts 
and axillary feathers brownish dusky, some of the largest having 
white shafts and terminal spots. Primaries dusky, and without 
white spots. T ail 6 inches long, almost entirely black, usually with a 
broad rufous tip, which is sometimes probably worn off, though feath- 
ers of this kind, with the rufous termination, have been found by Mr. 
Oaks, in summer, on the summit of the White Mountains. — The 
female is more than an inch shorter; and the general plumage is 
much more varied, with less black, and more of the ferruginous. 
SHARP-TAILED GROUS. 
(Tetrao phasianellus, Lin. Bonap. Am. Orn. iii. pi. 19. Phil. Museum.) 
Sp. Charact. — Mottled ; tail short, cuneiform, of 18 narrow, square 
feathers, the middle ones much the longest, the outer white at 
the point. — Female similar to the male. Winter plumage, dark- 
er and more glossy. 
This curious species of Grous is also principally an 
inhabitant of the coldest habitable parts of the American 
continent, being found around Hudson’s Bay in the larch 
thickets throughout the whole year. It is not uncommon 
in the forests of the Rocky Mountains, is also met with 
abundantly on the plains of Oregon, and Mr. Say saw it 
in the spring likewise in Missouri, but little beyond the 
settlements, at which season it also visits the vicinity of 
Fort William, on Lake Superior. It is, as usual, shy and 
solitary, living only in pairs throughout the summer, 
when they subsist much upon berries. In autumn and 
winter they are seen moving in families, and frequent 
the thickets of juniper and larch, on whose buds, as 
well as those of the birch, alder, and poplar, they now 
principally live. They usually keep on the ground, but 
if disturbed take to trees. When hard pressed by the 
