52 SPOTTED GROUS. 
point and on the inner vane; the primaries, with the exception of 
the first, are slightly marked with whitish gray on their outer edge, 
but are entirely destitute of white spots. The tail is six inches 
long, well rounded, and composed of only sixteen feathers. These 
are black, with a slight sprinkling of bright reddish on the outer 
web at base, under the coverts, which disappears almost entirely 
with age; all are bright dark rusty for half an inch at their tip, 
this colour itself being finely edged and shafted with black. The 
tarsus measures an inch and a half, its feathers, together with the 
femorals, are dingy gray, slightly waved with dusky; the toes are 
dusky; the lateral scales dingy whitish, and the nails blackish. 
The female is smaller than the male, being more than an inch 
shorter. The general plumage is much more varied, with less of 
black, but much more of rusty. There is a tinge of rufous on the 
feathers of the nostrils. Those of the head, neck, and upper part 
of the back, are black, with two or three bright bands of orange 
rusty, and tipped with gray; there is more of the gray tint on the 
neck, on the lower part of which above, the orange bands are 
broader; all the remaining parts of the body above, including the 
tail-coverts, are more confusedly banded and mottled with duller 
rusty, orange, and gray, on a blackish ground, these colours 
themselves being also sprinkled with a little black. The sides 
of the head, the throat, and all the neck below, are dull rusty 
orange, each feather varied with black; on the lower portion 
of the breast the black bands are broad and very deep, 
alternating equally with the orange rusty, and even gradually 
encroaching upon the ground colour. The breast is deep black, 
each feather, as well as those of the under parts, including the 
lower tail-coverts, are broadly tipped with pure white, forming 
over all the inferior surface very large and close spots, each 
feather having besides one or two rusty orange spots, much paler 
and duller on the belly, and scarcely appearing when the plumage 
