50 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



feathers of the feet and legs, so that bareness or lack of feathers 

 in April becomes a sign of health, and thickly feathered legs 

 a sign of sickness ; this is the precise contrary of the proverbial 

 saying that bare legs indicate disease ; though at other seasons 

 the saying may be applicable. 



In May the preponderance of cock birds found dead, and 

 therefore of skins of cock birds showing belated moult, is again 

 a large one. The healthy cock is still in his much-worn winter 

 plumage, but on the head and neck more feathers of the new 

 autumn plumage have appeared (PL v.). 



In June as a rule, the mortality amongst adult birds, due to 

 Strongylosis, is coming to an end. Late in June the healthy 

 cock Grouse can at last be said to have changed into his com- 

 plete " autumn plumage." The winter plumage persists only 

 on the abdomen and lower breast, on the actual chin which is 

 blackish with a few white spots, and on the throat, where a few 

 red feathers still remain. The moulting of the quills and tail 

 feathers commences towards the end of the month. The rump 

 and back are now completely covered with new black-centred 

 feathers carrying broad-barred buff and black bands, and a 

 few have a whitish terminal spot, similar to that found in the 

 female. The head and neck, breast and throat, are now clothed 

 in broad-barred buff and black feathers, quite distinct from the 

 more chestnut and more finely black-marked plumage of the 

 winter. It is impossible on seeing a series of the birds showing 

 this distinctive change to avoid noticing how closely this autumn 

 plumage of the cock approximates to the nesting plumage of 

 the hen, but it has arrived in the cock just two months later 

 than it is normally due in the hen far too late to be a breeding 

 plumage. It appears almost as though the pathological post- 

 ponement of the moult, a postponement which is, after all, 

 nothing but a sign and a symptom of disease, has gradually 

 developed into a normal habit in the life of the bird, and one is 

 led to think that this habitual disability in the cock Grouse, 

 which results from Strongylosis during the nesting, courting, 

 and breeding season (a disability which causes the death of 



