DUSKY GROUS.
T E T R AO OBS&U*RWS%
^ t l a t e X\(III. Female,
Tetrao obscurus, Sax, in Long’s Exped. to Rocky Mount. IL p. tÄ jNmw’Cat. Birds
®w Oudf, Macl. Lyc. Phila.l, p. 23. I d . %?*• BwaSi^eMS. Sp. 207,
. in A n . Lyc. Nat. Bist. N. Y . 442.
Philadelphia Museum, Female.
Collection of Mir: Sabine, imLondon, Male aad^emal^P
m LimsteV in his genusiTetrao, brought'|og;etJtier^sag^it a number
|p^'Spflps^ bearing no more; than a diManter^semi p nce tpj eaah
p ther.. and.djpering.not only in t h e l r ' b . u t even
in tthe.^Kpeculiar habits,,' that/ he\might* with&cClmQpt4l||i.ensame
propriety >■ have’ fihcluded hu it all|*,tyMpal^fgallinaceQus birds.
Latham vm;y judiciously separatedgthe«^enus^riwamws, us; well as
that, of Pmfe,$wlqqh latter he ftstored» mBm. Brisson. { Illiger
likewise contributed' to’I our Aetter kno^llplg-e of theSe birds by
'characterizing fvsto more natural i^ n e r^P Syrrhaptes and Ortygis.
Temminck,, in his Histoire des*AQdt&dpes, carried the number %
Sevehj büt has since reduced it by^ rfeSiting.. Cotut~ni,ofi t>Oj E ^dis:.t i \
The true metmones are divided byjYieillqt into, tw,®^ gqnpra^|iie
L'agopodes forming a djstinct qfte;JPp themselves. These- heweVer
wf regard* as rib\more than a JKibgenus*, of which we distinguish
three ihr our genus Tetrao. ,Lagopus,' whiqh represents it in
j§ne Arctic "Polar regio’nyjjjAr whose climate. ^ | y are-admirably
^daptea'by beingsclbthedVto the very nails in plumage' suited to
the-temperature, * furnished abundantly with th g lj diown* upon
which the feathers arOÄllosely applied. The colour); of their