54 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



the faded buff " autumn " feathers among the red, the former 

 looking spotty and pale. On the back the new chestnut and 

 black feathers are rapidly replacing the faded autumn feathers. 

 The flight feathers which were moulted in June have now been 

 replaced thus accounting for the fact that the adult birds as 

 well as the young ones are stronger on the wing than at the 

 beginning of the shooting season. Some perfectly healthy cocks 

 still look as if in " autumn plumage," while others, on the con- 

 trary, have nearly completed their winter dress. The legs and 

 feet are thickly covered with white feathers, and the nails are 

 uniformly small, as the old claws have all been shed. Their 

 growth, however, is extremely rapid. 



In November and December the cock Grouse drops niost of 

 the remaining " autumn plumage." By the end of the latter 

 month his moult is complete, but on the neck and back a greater 

 or lesser number of these autumn feathers are retained till the 

 following summer. 



The most striking characteristics of the winter plumage 

 are the rich copper-coloured neck and throat, and, in the darker 

 varieties which are common in the Scottish Highlands, the 

 contrasting blackness of the upper breast and abdomen often 

 broadly flecked with pure white tips. 



Amongst the cocks there are several well-defined and easily 

 recognised varieties, which seem to have a certain regularity 

 of distribution geographically. These will be considered later. 



PART II. PLUMAGE CHANGES or THE HEN GROUSE. 



The two changes of plumage in the hen Grouse are completed, 

 in the one case by the end of April or the beginning of May, 

 and in the other case by July and August. 



The actual feather changes in both cock and hen are really 

 very comparable in character, notwithstanding the difference 

 of two months already referred to, they may be described and 

 explained in very much the same terms. 



Mr Ogilvie-Grant was the first to draw attention to the 



