This genus, as far as known, is entirely peculiar to North America, where but one species, with two races, is known.
Species and Varieties.
C. cupido. Ground-color above yellowish-brown, tinged with grayish and reddish; beneath white; whole upper and lower parts variegated with transverse bands,—those beneath regular, broad, sharply defined, and plain dusky-brown, those above more broken, broader, and deep black. Head buff, with a broad vertical stripe, a broad one beneath the eye from bill to ears, and a patch on lower side of auriculars, brownish-black.
Tarsi clothed with long hair-like feathers, the bare posterior face entirely hidden. Dark bars above, .30 or more in width, deep black; those beneath, about .20 wide, and dark brown. Top of head nearly uniformly blackish; face-stripes dusky-black. Bill, .40 deep, .50 long; wing, 9.00. Hab. Prairies of the Mississippi Valley; south to Louisiana; formerly eastward to Long Island and Pennsylvania … var. cupido.
Tarsi clothed with short feathers, the bare posterior face conspicuously exposed. Dark bars above less than .20 in width, dark grayish-brown; those beneath about .10 wide, and pale grayish-brown. Top of head with only a slight spotting of blackish; face-markings reddish-brown. Bill, .35 deep, .55 long, from nostril; wing, 8.30. Hab. Southwestern Prairies (Texas?) … var. pallidicinctus.
PLATE LXI.
- 1. Cupidonia cupido. Ad., 17045.
- 2. Cyrtonyx massena. Juv., 37292.
- 3. Bonasa umbellus. Juv., 61949.
- 4. Lophortyx californicus. Juv., Cal., 12591.
- 5. Canace canadensis. Juv., Maine.
- 6. Centrocercus urophasianus. Juv., 38551.
- 7. Cupidonia cupido. Juv., 25989.
- 8. Lagopus albus. Juv., 44631.
- 9. Bonasa umbellus. Ad., D. C., 12568.
- 10. Bonasa umbelloides. Ad., Rocky Mts., 11394.