-56 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



farther south. Nevertheless, the white spotting is not confined to the blacker 

 or to the darker birds, for it may be quite a conspicuous feature in the bright 

 red birds of Wales and England, though in the lowlands and in the 

 north of England, especially in Yorkshire, it is a rare character, only excep- 

 tionally met with. 



Mr Ogilvie-Grant, in his "Handbook to the Game Birds," 189G, says: 

 "The ordinary varieties of the male may be divided into three distinct 

 types of plumage : a red form, a hlack form, and a white-spotted form." ' 



The red foi^m, he says, "is mostly to be found on the low grounds of 

 Ireland, the west coast of Scotland, and the Outer Hebrides " ; ^ and this 

 Bed type, Statement is borne out not only by the Committee's collection of 

 cocks. Grouse skins, but by the interesting collection made by Mr T. E. 

 Buckley now in the Cambridge Museum. Similar birds have been obtained 

 in some numbers from Caithness, Sutherland, the Lewes, and Inverness-shire. 

 From Stirliug, Selkirk, Northumberland, and Wicklow only one or two have 

 been examined, but in Wales the red type is almost always met with. Welsh 

 birds are often most typically and uniformly very bright red. Dumfriesshire 

 also undoubtedly produces a large proportion of the same red type. 



Bright red birds are not commonly characteristic of Ross-shire, Stirling- 

 shire, or Northumberland, notwithstanding the fact that an occasional 

 example of this type may be found in these counties. Dumbartonshire, 

 however, and Argyllshire are said to produce more birds of a bright red type 

 than other counties, and both these counties fall in with Sutherlandshire as 

 forming part of the west coast of Scotland. 



The following specimens have been figured to illustrate the red type of 

 the cock Grouse : — 



PI. V. Upper surface : red type in winter plumage. 

 Male Grouse, No. G30. Wales, 18.3.07. 



PI. III. Under surface : red type in winter plumage. 



Male Grouse, No. 407. Glendoe, Inverness-shire, 7.12.06. 



PI. VII. Under surface : red type, changing from winter to autumn 

 plumage. 

 Male Grou.se, No. 915. Forfarshire, 4.6.07. 



' " Handbook to the Game Birds," p. 27. - Ibul, p. 28. 



