DUSKY GROUSE. 
197 
coverts, are broad, and sprinkled with black, so as to 
be often blended with the lower band. The sides of 
the head and the throat are whitish, dotted with 
blackish, the black occupying both sides of each feather, 
deepening and taking a bandlike appearance on the 
inferior portion of the upper sides of the neck; on each 
feather of the breast is a whitish band that becomes 
wider on those nearest the belly ; the flanks are varied 
with rufous, each feather having, besides tbe small tip, 
three broad cross lines of that colour, and a white spot 
at the tip of the shaft, increasing in size as they are 
placed lower; the belly feathers are plain dull cinereous, 
the lower tail-coverts are white, black at their base, 
with one or two black bands besides, and tinged between 
the bands with grayish ochreous ; the wings are nine 
and a half inches long, with the third and fifth primaries 
subequal, the coverts, as well as the scapulars, are of 
the general colour, with about two bands, the second 
of which is sprinkled as well as the tip, each feather 
being white on the shaft at tip ; the primaries, secon- 
daries, and outer wing-coverts, including their shafts, 
are plain dusky; the secondaries have ochreous zigzag 
marks on their outer webs, and are slightly tipped with 
dull whitish ; the primaries themselves are somewhat 
mottled with dingy white externally, but are notwith- 
standing entirely without the regular white spots so 
remarkable in other grouse; the lower wing-coverts, 
and long axillary feathers, are pure white. The tail 
measures in length seven and a half inches, is very 
slightly rounded, of twenty broad feathers, of which the 
lateral are plain blackish, with the exception of a few 
whitish dots at the base of their outer webs, and the 
middle ones being varied with rufous dots disposed like 
the bands across their whole width ; all are thickly 
dotted with gray for half an inch at tip, which in the 
specimen described, 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 minuteness to which we have 
