is long, and hangs down over the thighs. The thigh
feathers are very downy, but are not long. The tarsi are rather long,
and the toes are moderately long; they are clothed to the roots of the
nails by a close coat of hairy feathers. The claws are strong, sharp,
and very much curved.

The length of the bird from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail
is 21 inches 6 lines; and the length of the longest quill feather is 12
inches six lines.

* * * * *

THE COCK OF THE PLAINS,

_Tetrao,[3] (Centrocercus,) Urophasianus,_

SWAINSON.

This bird, which was first mentioned by Lewis and Clark,[4] has since
become well known to the fur traders that frequent the banks of the
Colombia. Several specimens have been sent to England by the agents of
the Hudson's Bay Company. Mr. David Douglas has published the following
account of the manners of the species, the only one hitherto given.

[3] Or Grouse.

[4] The adventurous travellers to the Source of the Missouri.

"The flight of these birds is slow, unsteady, and affords but little
amusement to the sportsman. From the disproportionately small, convex,
thin-quilled, wing,--so thin, that a vacant space, half as broad as a
quill appears between each,--the flight may be said to be a sort of
fluttering more than any thing else: the bird giving two or three claps
of the wings in quick succession, at the same time hurriedly rising;
then shooting or floating, swinging from side to side, gradually
falling, and thus producing a clapping, whirring sound. When started,
the voice is '_cuck, cuck, cuck_,' like the common pheasant. They pair
in March and April. The love-song is a confined, grating, but not
offensively disagreeable, tone,--something that we can imitate, but have
a difficulty in expressing--'_Hurr-hurr--hurr-r-r-r hoo_,' ending in a
deep hollow tone, not unlike the sound produced by blowing into a large
reed. Nest on the ground, under the shade of _Purshia_ and _Artemisia_,
or near streams, among _Phalaris arundinacea_, carefully constructed of
dry grass, and slender twigs. Eggs from thirteen to seventeen, about the
size of those of a common fowl, of a wood-brown colour, with irregular
chocolate blotches on the thick end. The young leave the nest a few
hours after they are hatched. In the summer and autumn months these
birds are seen in small troops, and in winter and spring in flocks of
several hundreds. Plentiful through the b