PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 9 



The sexes differ, and there are three seasonal changes of coloration. (Pis. 139, 150.) 

 Length 14'5 in. [368'3 mm.]. The male, from April to July, has the upper parts 

 and flanks black, more or less finely mottled and barred with grey rusty colour on 

 the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts ; the chin and throat are white ; the fore- 

 part of the breast is brown, sometimes slightly mottled with rufous, and the rest 

 of the under parts are white. The remiges and outer wing-coverts are white, 

 tail feathers black, tipped with white; above the eye is a large " wattle " of vermilion. 

 From August to October the upper parts are grey barred and vermiculated with 

 black and white ; a few of the black feathers of the summer dress in the scapulars 

 may give a blotched appearance to this region. The black of the lores is wanting. 

 The throat and sides of the head and neck are more or less white, barred with 

 black, while the greater part of the wings and the whole of the breast and abdomen 

 are white. The flanks are grey barred and vermiculated like the back. In the 

 winter dress, worn from November to March, the whole plumage is white save for 

 the black lores, a black stripe behind the eye, and the black of the tail feathers. 

 The female, in breeding dress (April to July), differs from the female red-grouse at 

 the same season in that the upper parts are irregularly spotted and barred with buff 

 and white. The flanks are of a golden yellow, coarsely barred with black, while the 

 wings are mostly white. The middle pair of tail feathers are black, barred with 

 rufous, harmonising with the rest of the plumage of the upper parts ; the remaining 

 quills are black, more or less tipped with white as in the male, and often with a more 

 or less extensive area of white at the base of the tail. In July the light edges of the 

 feathers of the upper parts become abraded and faded, making the plumage darker 

 than in May. The " wattle " above the eye is much smaller than in the male, 

 and the bill is black. In her autumn dress (August to October) she is to be dis- 

 tinguished from the male by the presence of more or fewer of the black feathers of 

 the summer dress. The middle pair of tail feathers are usually sandy brown, 

 mottled with blackish, and tipped with white ; in some birds one or both feathers may 

 be pure white. In both male and female the feathers of the legs and toes are 

 moulted and renewed between June and September, and the claws are also shed, 

 as in the red-grouse. The female in winter dress (November to March) differs from 

 the male in having no black on the head. In the juvenile plumage the head, upper 

 parts of the body, chest, and sides are black, barred and mottled with rufous buff, 

 most of the feathers having a whitish spot at the tip. The scapulars are black, with 

 a round white terminal spot bounded on either side by a bar of ochreous yellow, 

 while the middle of the feather is traversed by yellow chevron. The primaries are 

 VOL. IV. B 



