RED GROUSE. 265 



those most commonly met with. The third, or white-spotted 

 form, has the feathers of the breast and belly, and sometimes 

 those of the head and upper-parts, tipped with white. The 

 most typical examples of this variety are found, as a rule, on 

 the high grounds of the north of Scotland. 



"In the female, no less than five distinct types are recognisable, 

 the red, the black, the white-spotted, the buff-spotted, and the 

 buff-barred, forms. The first two are the rarest, the latter being 

 extremely uncommon (pi. iii. figs. 5 and 13). The white- 

 spotted form occurs as in the male; the buff-spotted form, 

 which is much the commonest and most usually met with, has 

 the feathers of the upper parts topped at the tip with whitish- 

 buff (pi. iii. figs. 2 and 3) ; the fifth, or buff-barred form 

 (pi. iii. fig. 4), is met with in the south of Ireland, and re- 

 sembles in winter (autumn plumage) the ordinary female in 

 breeding plumage, having the upper parts coarsely barred with 

 buff and black. Very little is known of this last variety, owing 

 to the difficulty in obtaining birds, except during the shooting 

 season. 



" The great peculiarity of the Red Grouse, and one without 

 parallel among birds even of the genus, lies in the fact that the 

 changes of plumage in the male and female occur at different 

 seasons. 



" The male has no distinct summer plumage, but has distinct 

 autumn and winter plumages, and retains the latter through- 

 out the breeding season. 



" The female has a distinct summer plumage, which is com- 

 plete by the end of April or beginning of May ; also a distinct 

 autumn plumage, which is retained till the following spring. 



" To put it more concisely, both male and female have two 

 distinct moults during the year, but in the male they occur in 

 autumn and winter, and in the female in summer and autumn ; 

 the former having no distinct summer, and the latter no distinct 

 winter plumage. 



" In the Willow Grouse and Ptarmigan there are three distinct 

 changes of plumage in summer, autumn, and winter in both 

 male and female alike, the winter plumage being white in all. 



"The Red Grouse is considered by most ornithologists merely 

 an insular form of the Willow Grouse, and consequently one 

 might naturally suppose that, as the British species does not 



