LOCAL VAEIATION IN PLUMAGE OF GROUSE 53. 



and the assumption of the autumn plumage. The feathers of the upper parts 

 have black middles, and are barred with rufous - chestnut and ^^ 



Is oveiu ber. 



ornamented with the characteristic white or butf-coloured terminal 

 spots. 



In December the hen is in full autumn- winter plumage. On the legs and 

 feet she is well and thickly feathered ; and on the under side the chin 

 and throat are dark red, as well as the fore - neck, marked with 



December. 



broader black bars than upon the lower breast and abdomen, 



where the marking is "of the finer type, and the colour distinctly of the 



redder and darker autumn plumage. 



Part III.-^Local Variation in the Plumage of the Grouse. 



The following notes are the outcome of an attempt to find some broad 

 differences between Grouse from the Highlands, the Lowlands, the east coast 

 and the west coast of Scotland, and from English, Welsh, and Irish 

 moors. 



It seemed possible that, with a large series of skins of a species peculiar 

 to the British Isles and at the same time so variable, one might discover points 

 in the coloration of the plumage or in the size of the birds which could be 

 attributed to the varying physical conditions under which they live. 



The artificial transportation of Grouse from one county to another, generally 

 from the southern moors to the northern, often far removed from one another, 

 with different food and climate, has no doubt to some extent Effect of 

 confused the issue. But this is a difficulty which will increase ing fresh 

 rather than decrease, and it is possible that the purity of the British 

 breed (at present the only species of bird peculiar to our islands), may 

 before long be entirely lost by the introduction of a foreign species, the Willow 

 Grouse, on the mistaken supposition that the latter is freer from the parasite 

 of " Grouse Disease." The foreign species has already been introduced here 

 and there, and there has been some interbreeding with our own Red Grouse. 

 Hence there was some reason for thinking that, unless the opportunity for 

 collecting a series of pure bred British Red Grouse skins had been taken by 

 the Committee, the same wide opportunity might not have occurred again 

 before the introduction of foreign species had become popular. 



The Committee's collection contains five hundred and eighty skins of the Red 



