36 
DUSKY GROUS. 
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 figured, 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 descended in this instance, as after all the pains 
bestowed, the description is only that of an individual. The tail 
is pure black beneath, considerably paler at tip and on the 
undulations of the middle feathers. The tarsus is three quarters 
of an inch long; the feathers with which it is covered, together 
with the femorals, are pale grayish ochreous undulated with 
dusky; the toes are dusky, and the nails blackish. 
The male is but little larger, and entirely, but not intensely 
black. We can however say very little about it, having taken 
but a hasty and imperfect view of a specimen belonging to Mr. 
Sabine of London, and writing merely from recollection. The 
tail-feathers are wholly black, perfectly plain and unspotted, and 
in the female and young they are but slightly mottled, as is seen 
in almost all Grouse. Mr. Sabine has long had this bird in his 
possession, and intended dedicating it as a new species to that 
distinguished traveller Dr. Richardson. 
