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TETRAO UROPHASIANUS. 
both of the newly discovered species from the north* 
western part of America, and they only, should be 
distinguished by the extraordinary number of the 
feathers of the tail. In the dusky grouse, however, 
they are broad and rounded. The cock of the woods, 
like the greater part of the species, has but eighteen, 
which are also broad and rounded. The only grouse 
in which they are found narrow is the sharp-tailed* 
though without being either acute or tapering, but 
on the contrary square at tip, and of equal breadth 
throughout, or, if any thing, the lateral rather broader at 
the tip. 
Lewis and Clark first met with this bird on their 
journey westward, near the fountain of the Missouri, 
in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. They inform us 
that it is found on the plains of the Columbia in great 
abundance, from the entrance of the southeast fork of 
the Columbia to that of Clark’s River. It appears also 
to extend to California, for there can be but little doubt 
that it is the bird erroneously called bustard by the 
travellers who have visited that country. Lewis and 
Clark state, that in its habits it resembles the grouse, 
S meaning probably T. phasianellus ,) except that its 
avourite food is the leaf and buds of the pulpy-leafed 
thorn. The gizzard is large, and much less compressed 
and muscular, than in most gallinaceous birds, and 
perfectly resembles a maw. When the bird flies, he 
utters a cackling note, not unlike that of the domestic 
fowl. The flesh of the cock of the plains is dark, and 
only tolerable in point of flavour, and is not so palatable 
as either that of the pheasant or grouse. It is invariably 
found in the plains. 
The cock of the plains is precisely equal in size to 
the cock of the woods ; at least such is the result of a 
comparison of the female with the corresponding sex 
of the European bird, both lying before us. Each part 
exactly coincides in form and dimension, excepting 
that the tail rather gives the superiority to the American, 
so that if the male bears the same relative proportion 
to his female, the cock of the plains must be proclaimed 
