COCK OF THE PLAINS. 
59 
very pale silvery gray; the under wing-coverts and long axillary 
feathers being pure silvery white, excepting on the lining of the 
wing, which is dusky blackish. The wings are twelve inches 
long. The breast is grayish, somewhat mottled with black; on 
each side below is a pure white space, some of the feathers of 
which are tipped or banded with black; the large feathers of the 
flanks are blackish shafted with white, crossed by several whitish 
bands and sprinkled with yellowish: a broad oblong patch of 
deep brownish black occupies the whole of the belly and vent, 
the outer feathers being shafted with white, and broadly white at 
the point of their outer webs. The femorals and small feathers 
of the tarsus extending between the toes are yellowish gray 
minutely waved with blackish: the tarsus measures two inches; 
the toes are dusky black, and the pectinated row of processes 
long, strong, and dingy whitish; the nails blackish. The whole 
base of the plumage, with the exception of that of the neck 
beneath (which is white,) is of a dusky gray. The tail is ten 
inches long, and in colour is, as well as its coverts, in harmony 
with the rest of the plumage; the ground colour is blackish, and 
crossed or rather mottled with bands of whitish spots disposed 
irregularly, between which are small additional darker spots; the 
two middle ones are mottled all over, but the others are almost 
immaculate on their inner vane and at the point; hence the lower 
surface of the-unexpanded tail is of a silvery gray, much darker 
than that of the wings; 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 
