COCK OF THE PLAINS. 
215 
the largest of grouse. The two females are strikingly 
similar. The cock of the plains is, however, a much 
more grayish bird, wanting entirely the reddish that 
mottles, and occupies so much of the plumage of its 
analogue. This, the total want of beard-like appendages, 
and the singular shape of the tail, are the prominent 
discriminative features ; to which may be added, that 
the under wing-coverts, marbled with black in the 
European, are pure white in our new species, though 
this, as well as the want of reddish, might be ascribed 
to the youth of our specimen. However this may be* 
the remaining differences will be better estimated by 
attending to the following minute and accurate descrip- 
tion. 
The female of the cock of the plains, is from twenty- 
eight to thirty inches in length. The bill is one inch 
and a quarter long, perfectly similar to that of T. 
urogallusy perhaps a trifle less stout, and with the base 
(if this remarkable character be not accidental in our 
specimen,) farther produced among the feathers of the 
front ; the whole plumage above is blackish, most 
minutely dotted, mottled, and sprinkled with whitish, 
tinged here and there with very pale yellowish rusty, 
hardly worth mentioning; on the head, and all the 
neck, the feathers being small, minutely crossed trans- 
versely with blackish and whitish lines, gives the 
plumage quite a minutely dotted appearance ; the 
superciliar line is slightly indicated by more whitish ; 
on a spot above the eye, in the space between the bill 
and eye, and along the mouth beneath, the black 
predominates, being nearly pure : on the throat, on the 
contrary, it is the white that prevails, so as to be 
whitish dotted with black ; on the lower portion of the 
neck, the black again is the prevailing colour, the black 
feathers there being nearly tipped with grayish ; the 
sides of the neck are pure white for a space ; from the 
lower portion of the neck to the upper tail-coverts 
inclusively, the back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and 
secondaries, the blackish feathers have each two or 
three yellowish white bands, which are broader, espe- 
