, on the tail, the lower ones tolerably defined, but those towards the ends obscure: the margins
are zig-zagged, and bordered by dark umber-brown, with irregular zig-zag lines of the same,
upon a light hair-brown ground, between each bar. The quills, as is usual in this genus,
are light and almost unspotted, and the narrowed extremities of the tail are almost black.-
Under plumage, white and unspotted on the breast and part of the body ; but dark umber-
brown, approaching to black, on the ldwpr half of the body and part of the flanks; the latter
towards the vent are. marked as on the upper plumage. Under tail coverts black, broadly
tipped with white. Feathers of the thighs and tarsi light hair-brown, mottled with darker
lines. Throat and region of the head varied1 With blackish on a white ground, in too indefinite
and unequal a manner for desc 'ption. The shafts of all the feathers on the breast are
black, rigid, and look like hairs ; but those of the scale-like feathers of the sides are white
and thicker. Bill and toes blackish.
Form.—Bill thick and strong, but more compressed than in the typical species; the ridge
of the culmen is advanced to a remarkable extent towards the front, and divides the thickset
feathers which cover the nostrils by a convex ridge of three-quarters of an inch long. This is
a very peculiar and important character, since it plainly indicates the analogy of this form
to Cassicus, Scaphidurus, Buceros, Ramphastos, Rallus, and numerous other rasorial types.
On each side the breast the present specimen exhibits two prominent, naked protuberances,
as in the female bust, perfectly destitute of hairs:or feathers; their situation seems to be
more forward than the analogous naked parts of Tetrao cupido, these latter being in that
part of the neck which in all birds is more or less bare, but which in the present species is
covered with thick and fine down, obviously concealed in the living bird by the junction of
the front and back feathers of the throat. On each side of these protuberances, and higher
up on the neck, is a tuft of feathers, having their shafts considerably elongated and naked,
gently curved, and tipped with a pencil of a few black radii y these tufts occur at the same
part as those of T. umbellus, to which they are analogous; but as they are placed (in this
specimen) much behind the naked protuberances, they do not appear intended to cover them
when not inflated. On the sides of the neck and across the breast, below the protuberances,
the feathers are particularly short, rigid, and acute, laying over each other with the same
compactness and regularity as the scales of a fish, excepting that their extremities are not
rounded, but acutely pointed. Lower down the breast these feathers, however, begin - to
assume more of the ordinary shape; but the shafts still remain very thick and rigid, while
each is terminated by a slender, naked filament, hornlike, shining, and somewhat flattened
towards the end, where there are a few obsolete radii. Beyond these the feathers of the rest
of the body are of the ordinary construction. Wings, in proportion to the - size of the bird,
very short; the lesser quills ending in a small mucro or point. Tail rather lengthened and
considerably rounded, each feather lanceolate, and gradually attenuated to a fine point.
Tarsi somewhat elevated, thickly clothed with feathers to the base of the toes, and over the
membrane which connects them: the inner toe and ciaw shorter than that of the external
one by full three-tenths of an inch ; hind toe moderate, double the length of its claw.
In the female the colours of the whole upper plumage, tail, wing covers, tertiaries, front
of the neck, and sides of the breast, are dark umber, or blackish-brown and yellowish-white,
irregularly barred, and mottled in nearly equal quantities; but the dark colour forming larger
blotches towards the base, and the lighter one bars on the tips and stripes on the shafts. Fore
part of the belly white, barred 'wi,th black ; hinder parts black. The plumage of the breast
and neck -is of the ordinary form, there being neither the scale-like feathers nor projecting
shafts of the male/
Length, total . , •
“ „ of tail
• . of wing
,, .of bill above
/„ of bill to rictus
Dimensions
Of mounted spécimens .
Inch. Lin.
31 6
InFchem. alLe.i n.
22 ‘ 6 Length of tarsus .' . *
11 i 8 0 „ of middle toe and claw
13 . a • vio 6 ■JS ,, of-outer ditto . .;
., 1 . 7 1 4 „ of inner ditto'
1 It l 3 ; „ of hind ditto ' .' " ’ •
Inch. Lin.
. 2 '7
. .12- 84$ .. ; o1 58$
InFcemk aLlei.n .-
—-Sw.
[131.] 10. T e t r a o ( C e n t r o c e r c u s ) p h a s i a n e l l u s . (Swains.) Sharptailed
Grouse.
Genus, Tetrao, L inn. Sub-genus, Centrocercus, Swains.
Long-tailed Grouse ( Urogallus minor). Edwards, iii., pi- H7 ; a poor figure.
Tetrao phasianellus. Lin n. Syst., p. 160. Forster, Phil. Trans., lxii.,pp. 394, 425..
Sharp-tailed Grous. P e n n . Aret. Zool.,ii., p. 306, No. 181. H e a r n e , Jowrn., p. 408.
Tetrao phasianellus. Sab. Frankl.Journ., p. 680. Bonap. Or«., iii., p. 37, pL 19-
Tetrao urophasianellus. Dougl., Linn. Trans., xvi., p. 136; young.-)-
Awkiscow, Cree Indians. Pheasant, Hudson’s Bay Residents.
The northern limit of the range of the Sharp-tailed Grouse is Great Slave
Lake, in the sixty-first parallel; and its most southern recorded station is in
latitude 41°, on the Missouri. It abounds on the outskirts of the Saskatchewan
plains, and is found throughout the woody districts of the fur-countries, haunting
open glades or low thickets on the borders of lakes, particularly in the neighbourhood
of the trading-posts, where the forests have been partially cleared.
In winter it perches generally on trees, in summer it is much on the ground ; in
both seasons assembling in coveys of from ten to sixteen. Early in spring, a
family of these birds select a level spot, whereon they meet every morning, and
run round in a circle of fifteen or twenty feet diameter, so that the grass is worn
quite barej. When any one approaches the circle, the birds squat close to the
• This skin, though originally very perfect, has been so much distorted, that a ,s .mposstble to g §
true form and size. As.far as we can judge, the length of .the bird when ahve seems to have been 25 mches.-Sw.
+ On examination, Mr. Douglas's specimens in the Edinburgh Museum appeared to me to be merely the young
the Sharp-tailed Grouse, with ferruginous plumage.—R.
+ These circles resemble the “ fairy rings ” of the Scottish moors. R.