GROUSE AND PTARMIGAN 



2165 



winter dress, which in a milder climate was no longer essential for its protection. 

 Under these circumstances it might be inferred that in the red grouse there would 

 be only two changes of plumage, namely, in summer and autumn, but this, for 

 some at present unknown cause, is only the case with the female. In early spring 

 the latter begins to assume the summer dress of black mottled and barred with buff 

 or rufous buff, which harmonizes so well with the surroundings of her nest that she 

 is comparatively safe from detection. At the end of June she casts the whole of her 

 plumage, and by the beginning of September the change to the dark buff -spotted 



WH.I.OW GROUSE IN SUMMER DRESS. 

 (One-third natural size.) 



autumn dress is complete, though in some examples, probably birds of the year, a 

 few feathers of the back may still be seen in quill as late as December. The male, 

 on the other hand, makes no spring change, not a single feather being renewed be- 

 tween January and the end of June; but after the breeding season the entire plum- 

 age is replaced by the autumn feathers, which are black, marked, barred, and often 

 edged round the margin with buff. Thus, while at the end of August the cock 

 bears a considerable resemblance to the female in May, though the buff markings 

 are never so coarse, no sooner is the autumn plumage donned than the dark 



