COCK OF THE PLAINS. 
217 
wing’s ; 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 
adjoining, 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, while 
the middle is ten. All the twenty are narrow, tapering, 
acute, and falciform, turning inward. Those toward 
the middle are less curved, but more conspicuously 
acuminate and narrow for nearly two inches, all but 
the middle ones being slightly square at their narrow 
tips. 
Though we have reason to believe that the specimen 
described is a female, yet, from the broad patch upon 
the belly, and other marks unnecessary to be specified, 
we should not be surprised at its being a young male 
just beginning to change. In that case, and supposing 
him to have attained his full growth, this species would 
prove to be inferior in size to the cock of the woods, as 
its male would only be equal to the female of the latter. 
