Page 31

~~~DUSKY GRUS.                              31
. ~      1  1   _  l  _1  .-1  I       .     1     1      -.1tt-
Iger ,4ni moser. :AU the others nave. te toes cabrous +Dneat'n
and frinished withl a, petiated row of processesU r´ea4Wh side.*
This roughness of the sole of the feet enables. them tiotread
firmly on the slippery suface of the ground :or frozen snow, or to
grasp the branches of trees covered with ice.  Their nails -are
manifestly so formed as to, suit them fr scratcing away the
snow cQvering the vegetables whi  compose their food.. The
wings of the Grouse are short and rounded, the first primary is
shorter- han the third and fourth, which are longest. The tail
is usuall  Omposed of eighteen feathers, generally broad and
rounide. - The Red Grous, T. scoticus, however, and the European
Bonasile, and; T. canadensis or Spotted Grous, have but sixteen;
while our two new North America'n species have twenty onew
of them having these bfeathers very narrow and pointed, the
narrowness being also observed in the Sharp-tailed Grous. They
have the head small, the neck short, and the body massiver and
very fles.
The females of. the larger species differ greatly from the males,
which are gossy black, or blackish, while the former are mted
with gray, blackish, and rufous: such are all the typical Taones
of Europe, and the Cock of the Plains, the Dusky, andl the Spotted
Grouse of America.:  The smaller, species, in which both sexes
are mottled, such as T1 phasianellus and T. cupido, exhibit little or
nn .diffierence iin the nlumae of the two- sexes: which is also the
Ör r----
case in all the Bonasia and-Lgpds
feathers are in all respects like the femr
acquiretheir full plumage until after the
tie, a year, and most of the Lagopodes
the seasons in a remarkable manner.
These processes iaeliable to fall off, at least in p
; dirciiinsa  that we committe sel erors in
ypnoai#Vo the Bir  f he Uitd tales.