of New England, New Brunswick, &c. more properly the last. We have been informed by General Henry A. S. Dearborn, that they are sent from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to Boston, in a frozen state; as in the north they are known to be so kept hanging throughout the winter, and when wanted for use, they need only be taken down, and placed in cold water to thaw. General Dearborn, to whom we are much indebted for the information which his interest for science has induced him voluntarily to furnish, farther mentions, that he has heard from his father, that, during the progress of the expedition under Arnold, through the wilderness to Quebec, in 1775, these grouse were occasionally shot between the tide waters of Kennebeck river and the sources of the Chaudière, now forming part of the state of Maine. Fine specimens of the spotted grouse have been sent to the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, from the Sault de Ste. Marie, by Mr Schoolcraft, whose exertions in availing himself of the opportunities which his residence affords him, for the advancement of every branch of zoology, merit the highest praise. He informs us, that this bird is common from Lake Huron to the sources of the Mississippi, being called in the Chipeway language, mushcodasee, i. e. partridge of the plains.

The favourite haunts of the spotted grouse, are pine woods and dark cedar swamps, in winter resorting to the deep forests of spruce, to feed on the tops and leaves of these evergreens, as well as on the seeds contained in their cones, and on juniper berries. Hence their flesh, though at all times good, is much better in summer, as in winter it has a strong flavour of spruce. At Hudson's Bay, where they are called indifferently wood or spruce partridge, they are seen throughout the year. Like other grouse, they build on the ground, laying perhaps fewer eggs; these are varied with white, yellow, and black. They are easily approached, being unsuspicious, and by no means so shy as the common ruffed grouse, and are killed or trapped in numbers, without much artifice being necessary for this purpose.

When much disturbed, like their kindred species, they are apt to resort to trees, where, by using the precaution of always shooting the lowest, the whole of the terrified flock may be brought down to the last bird.

The spotted grouse is smaller than the common partridge or pheasant, being but fifteen inches in length. The bill is black, seven-eighths of an inch long. The general colour of the plumage is made up of black and gray, mingled in transverse wavy crescents, with a few of grayish rufous on the neck. The small feathers covering the nostrils, are deep velvety black. The feathers may all be called black as to the ground colour, and blackish plumbeous at the base; on the crown, upper sides of the head above the eye, and the anterior portion of the neck, they have each two gray bands or small crescents, and tipped with a third; these parts, owing to the gray margin of the feathers being very broad, appear nearly all gray; these longer feathers of the lower part of the neck above, and between the shoulders, are more broadly and deeply black, each with a reddish band, and gray only at tip; the lowest have even two reddish bands, which pass gradually into grayish; a few of the lateral feathers of the neck are almost pure white; all the remaining feathers of the upper parts of the body have two grayish bands, besides a slight tip of the same colour; some of the lowest and longest having even three of these bands, besides the tip. The very long upper tail-coverts are well distinguished, not only by their shape, but also by their colours, being black brown, thickly sprinkled on the margins with grayish rusty, and a pretty well defined band of that colour towards the point, then a narrow one of deep black, and are broadly tipped with whitish gray, more or less pure in different specimens; their shafts, also, are brownish rusty. The sides of the head beneath the eyes, together with the throat, are deep black, with pure white spots, the white lying curiously upon the feathers, so as to form a band about the middle, continued along the shaft, and spreading at the point; but the feathers being small on these parts, the

white spots are not very conspicuous. The breast, also, is deep black, but each feather broadly tipped with pure white, constituting the large spots by which this species is so peculiarly distinguished. On the flanks, the feathers are at first, from their base, waved with black and grayish rusty crescents; but these become gradually less pure and defined, and by getting confused, make the lowest appear mottled with the two colours; all are marked along the shaft with white, dilating at tip, forming on the largest a conspicuous terminal spot. The vent is for a space pure white, the tips of its downy feathers being of that colour: the under tail-coverts are deep black, pure white for half an inch at their tip, and with a white mark along the shaft besides. The wings are seven inches long, the fourth primary alone being somewhat longer than the rest. The upper coverts and scapularies are blackish, waved and mottled with grayish rusty; the longest scapularies have a small terminal spot of pure white along their shaft. The smaller coverts are merely edged with grayish rusty, and, in very perfect specimens, they are even plain; the under wing-coverts are brownish dusky, edged with grayish, some of the largest, as well as the long axillary feathers, having white shafts, dilating into a terminal spot; the remaining inferior surface of the wing is bright silvery gray: the spurious wing and the quills are plain dusky brown, the secondaries being slightly tipped and edged externally with paler, and those nearest the body somewhat mottled with grayish rusty at the 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 lies close: the feathers of the flanks are blackish, deeper at first, and barred with very bright orange, then much mottled with dull grayish rusty, each having a triangular white spot near the tip. The wings and tail are similar to those of the male, the variegation of the scapulars and upper coverts being only of a much more rusty tinge, dull orange in the middle on the shaft, all the larger feathers having, moreover, a white streak along the shaft, ending in a pure white spot, wanting in the male. The outer edge of the primaries is more broadly whitish, and the tertials are dingy white at the point, being also crossed with dull orange; the tail feathers, especially

the middle ones, are more thickly sprinkled with rusty orange, taking the appearance of bands on the middle feathers, their orange coloured tip being, moreover, not so pure, and also sprinkled.

The present bird comes from the Rocky Mountains: it is a male, and remarkably distinguished from the common ones of his species, by having the tail-feathers This difference I have entirely black to the end. observed to be constant in other specimens from the same wild locality; whilst all the northern specimens, of which I have examined a great number, are alike distinguished by the broad rufous tip, as in those described, and as also described by Linné and all other writers, who have even considered that as an essential mark of the species. The Rocky Mountain specimens are, moreover, somewhat larger, and their toes, though likewise strongly pectinated, are, perhaps, somewhat less so, and the tail-coverts are pure white at tip. But, Heaven forbid that our statements should excite the remotest suspicion, that these slight aberrations are characteristic of different species! If we might venture an opinion not corroborated by observation, we would say, that we should not be astonished, if the most obvious discrepancy, that of the tail, were entirely owing to season, the red tip being the full spring plumage; though it is asserted, that this species does not vary in its plumage with the seasons.

45. TETRAO UROPHASIANUS, BONAPARTE.

COCK OF THE PLAINS.

BONAPARTE, PLATE XXI. FIG. II.

IT is with the liveliest satisfaction that we are enabled finally to enrich the North American Fauna with the name and description of this noble bird; which must have formed from the earliest periods a principal ornament of the distant wilds of the west. Hardly inferior to the turkey in size, beauty, and usefulness, the cock of the plains is entitled to the first place, in