THE CHANGES OF PLUMAGE IN RED GROUSE 45 



favourable prognosis to bare legs when the legs should certainly 

 have been bare. 



To return, however, to the two plumages of the healthy 

 cock Grouse. They are distinguished by Mr Ogilvie-Grant as 

 the autumn plumage and the winter-summer plumage, and he 

 says further that the cock " has no distinct summer plumage." l 

 It is perfectly easy to see what is meant by this, and also by 

 the statement which follows, that the cock " retains the winter 

 plumage throughout the breeding season." 



Mr Millais also, in speaking of the cock Grouse, makes use 

 of the expression autumn plumage which, he says, appears late 

 in June ; and he adds that the autumn plumage, together with 

 the " spring feathers " (or what Mr Ogilvie-Grant considers the 

 first beginning of the autumn plumage on the Grouse's neck), 

 remain till the main moult in August and September. 



Mr Millais makes the following statement, which appears 

 to be based on a misinterpretation. He says : " as a matter 

 of fact the male Grouse sheds in September and August a 

 plumage which is a mixture of its winter, spring, and eclipse 

 feathers." 2 



These so-called " spring " and " eclipse " feathers are no 

 doubt, as Mr Ogilvie-Grant holds, the commencement of the 

 plumage which is completed gradually during the summer 

 months, and which he has described as the autumn plumage. 

 It is naturally a little misleading to find the autumn plumage 

 beginning to appear in early summer, but so long as the term 

 is understood to mean the paler, more buff-coloured plumage 

 with bolder bars of black, which begins to appear first on the 

 neck of the cock at the end of May or early in June, and is 

 eventually cast for the winter plumage in October, there need 

 be no real misunderstanding. 



That feathers of the previous winter plumage should be 

 mentioned in speaking of the moult of this autumn plumage 



1 " Handbook to the Game Birds," p. 28. (Allen's Naturalists' Library). London 

 W. H. Allen & Co., Ltd., 1895. 



2 In lit., "British Birds," for April 1910, vol. iii. p. 382. London: Witherley 

 & Co. 



