360 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



varies in size according to season, being very prominent during 

 the period of display. The bill and toes are blue-black, the 

 irides brown. The female is rufous buff, barred and mottled 

 with black, and the wattle above her eye is smaller. Young 

 birds at first resemble the hen, but young males show a mixture 

 of brown, black, and white in autumn, and early an outward 

 curve of the short tail feathers, though the full tail is not 

 acquired until the third year. Male : Length, 1975 ins. Wing, 

 10 ins. Tarsus, 2*25 ins. Female: Length, 18 ins. Wing, 

 9 ins. Tarsus, 2 ins. 



Red Grouse. Lagopus scotUus (Latham). 



No doubt the Red Grouse (Plate 156) is a British insular 

 form, closely allied to the Willow-Grouse, L. lagopus (Linn.), 

 but its plumage differences alone seem sufficient to warrant 

 specific rank. The Willow-Grouse has a white winter dress 

 like that of the Ptarmigan, and in summer its plumage is 

 whiter than that of any Red Grouse. Our bird is generally 

 distributed in Scotland, Ireland, and most of the Welsh 

 counties, but in England is a northern species, breeding so far 

 south as Shropshire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire. 



The Red Grouse is a moorland bird, but is by no means 

 confined to those which are heather clad ; indeed, on the 

 Pennines and in other parts there are well-stocked moors where 

 it would be difficult to find heather or ling. On such moors, 

 however, the crowberry, often confused with the heaths, is 

 usually plentiful. The altitude of the moor matters little if 

 other conditions are favourable, but though Grouse are found 

 at sea-level, most of their haunts are above the 1000-foot 

 contour. The appearance of the "Moor-fowl" is familar, 

 though generally as a shot-battcrcd corpse, or as a possible 

 recipient for shot as it comes, a stout, short-winged bird, 

 whirring and gliding over the shoulder of the moor, toward the 



