THE CHANGES OF PLUMAGE IN RED GROUSE 55 



exceptional want of agreement in the seasons chosen by the 

 two sexes of the Red Grouse for their moult, and as in the cock's 

 plumage he makes use of the terms " autumn " and " winter- 

 summer " or " winter " plumages, which have therefore been 

 used here, so in speaking of the hen's plumages it will be well 

 to adhere similarly to the expressions used by him, and to 

 call them " summer " and " autumn- winter " or " autumn " 

 plumages. 



Exception may be taken, and indeed has been taken, to these 

 names, as being inappropriate and inexact, but they are suffi- 

 ciently exact for all practical purposes, and so long as moults 

 and plumage changes are not completed in a week, but are spread 

 over a period of several months, so long will there be some 

 inexactitude in the terminology of these moults and plumages 

 if they are named according to the months or seasons. It is 

 immaterial so long as the term is sufficiently defined, for it is 

 obviously impossible to use a term so exact as to require no 

 definition. 



The hen Grouse moults twice in the year, and wears her 

 " summer plumage " as the breeding dress from April to July, 

 and her " autumn " or " autumn to winter " plumage from 

 August to March. These changes may be expressed in terms of 

 comparison with the cock, as a case of plumage change in 

 which the hen has two annual moults, exactly as has the cock, 

 but both moults occur two months earlier in the hen than 

 in the cock. 



The hen's " summer " or breeding plumage is a very beauti- Breeding 

 ful dress, variable to a considerable extent it is true, but yet ^ 

 having a general uniformity which becomes the more obvious 

 as a greater series of skins in any particular phase of plum- 

 age is examined. 



Opportunities for even seeing the hen Grouse, to say nothing 

 of obtaining her skin, in the full breeding plumage are rare ; and 

 thus it happens that, even in the large series of Grouse skins 

 at South Kensington and at Cambridge, this phase is only 

 poorly represented. 



