CAPERCAILLIE. 303 



and tlie second one ineli shorter than the third ; the third, 

 fourth, and fifth feathers, nearly equal in length, but the 

 third the longest feather in the wing. 



The adult female has the beak brown ; the irides hazel : 

 the feathers of the head, neck, back, wings, upper tail-coverts 

 and tail-feathers dark brown, barred and freckled with yellow 

 brown ; the neck in front and the chest are of a fine yellowish 

 chestnut ; those of the breast margined with black, and with 

 an extreme edge of greyish white ; the feathers of the flanks, 

 vent, and under tail-coverts with broader edges of white ; legs 

 greyish brown ; toes and claws pale brown. 



The whole length of the female described twenty-six 

 inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing thir- 

 teen inches. 



The young birds of both sexes in their first plumage re- 

 semble the old female, the young males afterwards obtaining 

 by slow degrees the colours which distinguish that sex. 



A young male preserved in the Museum of the Zoological 

 Society, about twenty-two inches in length, and rather larger 

 in bulk than a cock Pheasant, has nearly completed his 

 change ; the chestnut coloured feathers on the chest have 

 assumed part of the green colour peculiar to the males, but 

 still retain a portion of the chestnut, and is evidently a 

 change of colour without losing the feather, the black crescent 

 changinof to ofreen. 



