Tetrao cupido, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1758, 160.—Gm. I, 751.—Lath. Ind. Orn. II, 1790.—Wilson, Am. Orn. III, 1811, 104, pl. xxvii.—Bon. Mon. Tetrao, Am. Phil. Trans. III, 1830, 392.—Nuttall, Man. I, 662.—Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 490; V, 1839, 559, pl. clxxxvi.—Ib. Birds Amer. V, 1842, 93, pl. ccxcxvi.—Koch, Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1836, I, 159.—Max. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 439. Bonasa cupido, Stephens, Shaw’s Gen. Zoöl. XI, 299.—Gray, Cat. Brit. Mus. V, 1867, 88. Cupidonia americana, Reich. Av. Syst. Nat. 1850, p. xxix.—Bonap. Comptes Rendus, XLV, 1857, 428. Cupidonia cupido, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 628.—Elliot, P. A. N. S. 1864.—Ib. Monog. Tetraon. pl.—Dresser, Ibis, 1866, 26 (Brownsville, Texas).—Maynard, B. E. Mass. 1870, 138 (Martha’s Vineyard, and Naushon Island, Mass.)
Sp. Char. Male (10,006, Tremont, Illinois; W. I. Shaw). Ground-color above ochraceous-brown, tinged with grayish; beneath white, the feathers of the jugulum dark rusty-chestnut beneath the surface. Head mostly deep buff. Upper parts much broken by broad transverse spots, or irregular bars, of deep black, this color predominating largely over the lighter tints. Primaries and tail plain dusky; the former with roundish spots of pale ochraceous on outer webs, the latter very narrowly tipped with white. Lower parts with regular, continuous, sharply defined broad bars, or narrow bands, of clear dusky-brown. A broad stripe of plain brownish-black on side of head, beneath the eye, from rictus to end of auriculars; a blotch of the same beneath the middle of the auriculars, and the top of the head mostly blackish, leaving a broad superciliary and maxillary stripe, and the whole throat immaculate buff. Neck-tufts 3.50 inches long, deep black; the longer ones uniform, the shorter with only the edge black, the whole middle portion pale buff, shading into deep reddish-rusty next to the black. Wing, 9.00; tail, 4.50; bill, .40 deep by .50 long, from nostril; tarsus, 2.10; middle toe, 1.85. Female similar, but with shorter and inconspicuous cervical tufts. Young (25,998, Rockford, Illinois; Blackman). Above, including tail, yellowish-brown; feathers with conspicuous white shaft-streaks and large blotches of deep black. Outer webs of primaries with whitish spots. Top of head rusty-brown with a black vertical and a dusky auricular patch. Lower parts yellowish-white, with irregularly defined, transverse, grayish-brown broad bars; anteriorly more spotted, the jugulum tinged with brown.
17044 ♂
⅓ ⅓
Cupidonia cupido.
Chick (25,989, Rockford, Ill.). Bright lemon-buff, tinged on sides and jugulum with reddish; upper parts much washed with rusty. A narrow auricular streak, blotches on the vertex and occiput, a stripe across the shoulder, and blotches down the middle of the back and rump, deep black.
Hab. Prairies of the Mississippi Valley, from Louisiana, northward. East to Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania. Formerly along the eastern coast of the United States from Long Island to Cape Cod, or farther. A few still left on Naushon (?) and Martha’s Vineyard.
A pair from Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana, most resemble Illinois specimens, but are smaller (wing, 8.60, instead of 9.00), and there is rather more reddish, with less black, in the plumage.
