56 
COCK OF THE PLAINS. 
that we have seen it, we can determine its place in the system, 
and now give a faithful representation of at least one sex. 
We have again to acknowledge ourselves indebted, no less to 
the industry and sagacity, than to the liberal views of Mr. 
Leadbeater, for the present opportunity of representing this bird. 
His invaluable collection contains the only specimen known to be 
any where preserved. 
The name of Cock of the Plains was given by Lewis and Clark, 
and we have retained it, as being not only appropriate, but at the 
same time analogous to that of the large European species called 
Cock of the Woods. Similar reasons have influenced us in 
selecting the scientific name, which though perhaps too long, and 
ill compounded, has nevertheless the advantage of combining 
analogy in meaning with the indication of a most remarkable 
characteristic of the bird. This species is in fact distinguished 
from all others of its genus, and especially from its European 
analogue, by its long tail, composed of twenty narrow, tapering, 
acute feathers; thus evincing the fallacy of the character erro¬ 
neously attributed to all the Grouse, of having broad and rounded 
tail-feathers. It is a singular fact that both of the newly discovered 
species from the north-western part of America, and they only, 
should be distinguished by tfie extraordinary number of the 
feathers of the tail. In the Dusky Grous, 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 Grous 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 
