222 BRITISH BIRDS. 



mostly rather dark, but its shades vary very much, and it 

 is often soiled. It is strang-e that nobody has as yet 

 emphasized the strikingly small size of this bird, as 

 compared with typical minor. Wings of (J 85'5 to 88*5 

 mm., of $ 86 to 90 mm. (eighteen males and a few females 

 measured). Swedish D. m. Tninor wings of (J 92 to 96'5 

 mm., ? equal but apparently often slightly larger. Type 

 of D. m. comminutus : c? ad. Wingrave, Bucks., 22, iv, 1902. 

 I hope to discuss some continental specimens which come 

 near to I), m. comminutus on a future occasion. 



[Probably some will be tempted to fall into the error of 

 using Macgillivray's name, " Ficus striolatus/' for this 

 bird, but this is not correct. Macgillivray may possibly 

 have described a British specimen ; he did, however, not 

 name the British Lesser Spotted Woodpecker " Picus 

 striolatus,^'' but re-named the Picus minor of Linnaeus, 

 because the latter was " by no means the smallest of even 

 the Pied Woodpeckers'' {Hist. Brit. B., III., p. 90), and 

 gave as its distribution Europe, especially the northern 

 parts, France, G-ermany, and some parts of England.] 



22. — Lagopus lagopus scoticus (Lath.). 

 Red Grouse. 



Tetrao scoticus Latham, " Gen. Syn.," Suppl. I., j). 290 



(1787). 



The Red Grouse, indigenous only to the British Isles, s 

 the representative of the Willow-Grouse {Lagoims lagopus 

 lagopus) of northern Europe. As everybody knows, it 

 differs from its continental ally in lacking the white 

 primaries and other white portions in the summer plumage, 

 and in having no entirely white winter plumage, the latter 

 being not remarkably different from the summer plumage. 



