A slender crest of narrow feathers; tail of twenty feathers; rounded. Male with the upper parts blackish-brown, the wings lighter; elongated feathers on the head greyish-brown; hind neck minutely undulated with bluish-grey; scapulars, inner secondaries, and smaller wing-coverts also minutely undulated with grey and brownish-red; rump and upper tail-coverts and quills clove-brown, secondaries bordered and tipped with yellowish-grey, primaries mottled with grey on their outer webs, tail black; sides of head, fore part and sides of neck, and fore part of breast, greyish-black; loral space and throat barred with white; lower parts generally blackish-grey, the feathers of the sides with a median streak and terminal patch of white, and more or less barred with dusky, as are the lower tail-coverts; axillary feathers and inner wing-coverts white; tarsal feathers brownish-grey. Female considerably smaller, with the upper parts greyish-brown, barred with dusky, and minutely undulated; the fore neck banded with brown and pale sienna, the rest of the lower parts as in the male, but paler.
Male, 22, wing 91/2. Female, 191/2, wing 9.
From the eastern spurs of the Rocky Mountains, to the Columbia River, and northward to Hudson's Bay. Abundant. Resident.
Tetrao obscurus, Say, Long's Exped.
Tetrao obscurus, Bonap. Syn. p. 127.
Dusky Grouse, Tetrao obscurus, Bonap. Amer. Orn. v. iii. pl. 18.
Tetrao obscurus, Dusky Grouse, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v. ii. p. 344.
Dusky Grouse, Nutt. Man. v. i. p. 666.
Dusky Grouse, Tetrao obscurus, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iv. p. 446.
*** Tail very short, transversely arched, much rounded.
298. 4. Tetrao Cupido, Linn. Pinnated Grouse.
Feathers of the crown elongated; two tufts of lanceolate elongated feathers on the sides of the neck, under which is an oblong bare orange-coloured space on either side, capable of being inflated; tail very short, much rounded, of eighteen feathers. Male with the upper parts blackish-brown, transversely marked with broad undulating bands of light yellowish-red; wing-coverts and secondaries of a lighter brown, tinged with grey, and barred with pale red: primary quills greyish-brown, with black shafts, and spots of pale reddish on the outer webs, tail dark brown, narrowly tipped with dull white, the two middle feathers mottled with brownish-red; loral space, a band from the lower mandible over the cheek, and the throat, pale yellowish-red; a band of blackish-brown under the eye; extending to the ear-coverts, and another on the side of the throat; cervical tufts, with the feathers dark brown on the outer webs, pale yellowish-red and margined with dusky on the inner; lower parts greyish-white, tinged with yellow on the sides, with large transverse curved bands of greyish-brown; lower tail-coverts arranged in three series, dusky at the base, white at the end; tibial and tarsal feathers grey, obscurely and minutely banded with yellowish-brown. Female considerably smaller, without the crest, cervical tufts, or air-bags, but otherwise similar to the male.
Male, 18, 271/2.
Abundant from Texas throughout all the western prairies, to very high up the Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, and Ohio. Almost extirpated in the Middle and Eastern Districts. Resident.
Pinnated Grouse, Tetrao Cupido, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. iii. p. 104.
Tetrao Cupido, Bonap. Syn. p. 126.
Pinnated Grouse, Nutt. Man. v. i. p. 662.
Pinnated Grouse, Tetrao Cupido, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. ii. p. 490; v. v. p. 559.