_Dendragapus_, ELLIOT, P. A. N. S. Philad. 1864. (Type, _Tetrao
obscurus_, SAY.)
GEN. CHAR. Tail of twenty feathers, rounded, rather large (about two
thirds the wing); the feathers broad to the tips, which are almost
truncated. A colored (orange or yellow) “comb” of naked skin over the
eye, and an inflatable air-sac on side of the neck. No crest or other
unusual plumes about the head or neck.
[Illustration: =19159= ⅓ ⅓
_Tetrao obscurus._]
Species and Varieties.
=C. obscurus.= Above nearly uniform plumbeous-dusky, minutely
mottled on the wings. Tail uniform black, with or without a lighter
terminal band, and sometimes finely and obscurely mottled above.
Lower parts nearly uniform clear plumbeous, or blackish-dusky; a
dusky half-collar on the throat; chin and throat white, variegated
with dusky. Length, about 20.50; wing, 9.40; tail, 7.45. _Female_
smaller, the colors more variegated, with the dusky less continuous,
and less in amount.
=A.= Tail rounded, with a distinct terminal band of clear plumbeous.
Above brownish-ashy, minutely mottled (transversely) with dusky
and, to a less extent, with yellowish-brown. Beneath fine pure
ashy. _Hab._ Sierra Nevada (from Fort Crook southwards) and Rocky
Mountains, from the Hellgate region to New Mexico …
var. _obscurus_.
Above brownish-black, minutely and sparsely mottled with
slate and rusty-brown. Beneath dark plumbeous. (In northern
specimens, especially in females from Sitka, much washed with dark
castaneous-rusty.) _Hab._ Northwest coast mountains, from Oregon
to Sitka …
var. _fuliginosus_.
=B.= Tail nearly even, and without any terminal lighter band, or else
having it badly defined.
Colors, in other respects, of var. obscurus, but cheeks, etc.,
less dusky. _Hab._ Rocky Mountains of British America, south
to the Yellowstone and Hellgate region of United States (where
grading into var. _obscurus_) …
var. _richardsoni_.
[Plate: PLATE LIX.
1. Canace obscurus. ♂ Rocky Mts., 19159.
2. Canace obscurus. ♀ Rocky Mts., 19166.
3. Canace franklini. ♂ Rocky Mts., 398.
4. Canace richardsoni. N. Rocky Mts.
5. Canace canadensis. ♂ Nova Scotia, 12564.
6. Canace canadensis. ♀ Nova Scotia, 12565.]
Canace obscurus, var. obscurus, SAY.