THE CHANGES OF PLUMAGE IN RED GROUSE 61 



white points, not to be confused with broken shafts, which 

 occasionally result from wear and tear in woody heather. 



The plumage of the hen Grouse in August is well known. August. 

 There are probably fewer diseased birds on the moor in August 

 than there are in July. In July, however, they are never shot, 

 and are therefore not observed, but in August they are care- 

 fully picked out of every bag, and, owing to the general interest 

 in the question of disease, are almost always noticed, and in 

 some cases are publicly notified. Hence the idea that disease 

 makes a new start in August and September. As a matter of 

 fact, these wasted birds are almost certainly convalescent. 

 They have been diseased, and they are still suffering from 

 disease, but they have avoided actual death in the two highest 

 mortality months, April and May. Once tided over these fatal 

 months, the food and general conditions of life improve, the 

 weight of the cock goes up, and the balance is again in favour 

 of recovery for him ; and although with the hen the exigencies 

 of incubation and the cares of the family continue to handicap 

 her until June and even July, she then rapidly begins to put on 

 weight, and in August and September is once more on the way 

 towards complete recovery. Many sick-looking " piners " are 

 shot upon the moors in August, but in September many that 

 were not up to the average weight the month before are practi- 

 cally normal, and would probably be indistinguishable from 

 healthy birds, were it not that their serious indisposition of the 

 preceding months has put them behind their fellows in the 

 matter of feather change. 



In August, therefore, a collection of skins contains a large 

 number of examples of hen birds showing def erred ^ moult and 

 belated growth of the autumn feathers. The normal healthy 

 hen Grouse in August has already put off most of the broad- 

 barred spring plumage feathers of her nesting dress, and is very 

 much like the cock bird in appearance, with the same dark, 

 red-brown vermiculate or fine-barred plumage underneath, 

 white-flecked or not as the case may be, and with a mixture of 

 old and new feathers above. The legs and feet of a forward 



