the feathers.  The belly and long plumage of the flanks are white, crossed by narrow bars of dark brown.  The under tail coverts, thighs, and feet are pure white.  The linings of the wings are pure white with the exception of a brown spot on the tips of the great interior coverts.  The bill is strong, curved from the base, moderately compressed towards the tip, with a very obtuse ridge.  The facial disk is small, and incomplete above the orbit.  The egrets are more than two inches long, each composed of six or seven feathers, and situate behind the upper end of the black band bounding the face.  The folded wings fall about three inches and a half short of the tail, which is rounded, the outer feathers being an inch shorter than the central ones.  The plumage of the sides of the belly 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,