RED GROUSE. 267 



feathers are retained, and are conspicuous among the new 

 winter plumage. The rest of the under parts remain the same 

 as after the autumn moult. 



" The general colour of each bird varies, of course, according 

 to the type to which it belongs, some being darker, some lighter. 

 When once the winter moult is complete, no change whatever 

 takes place in the plumage of the male till the following autumn 

 moult, except that the feathers become bleached and worn at 

 the extremities. 



"Adult Female, Autumn- Winter Plumage.* Upper parts black, 

 with narrow irregular bars and mottlings of rufous, and a buff 

 spot at the tip of most of the feathers (pi. iii. figs. 2 and 3) ; 

 chest and flank-feathers narrowly and often irregularly barred 

 with rufous and ,black, and usually more or less tipped with 

 buff (pi. iii. figs. 10 and n). The rest of the under parts 

 are dark chestnut, mottled and barred with black, or black 

 barred with chestnut. The typical white-spotted form differs, 

 of course, in having the feathers of the under parts widely 

 tipped with white. 



"Adult Female, Summer Plumage. 



"A. Feathers of the Upper parts. 



" So far as I have been able to ascertain from examining a 

 large number of specimens, the summer feathers of the upper 

 parts are always attained by moult, and never by change of 

 pattern. The summer moult of these parts is very complete, 

 and the transformation from the autumn-winter plumage very 

 remarkable. Every female assumes the summer plumage, and 

 at this season all the different types closely resemble one 

 another, but one can generally tell by the colour of the under 



* The form described is the commonest or buff-spotted form of the female 

 in autumn plumage. In typical examples of the red form the buff spots at 

 the ends of the feathers of the upper parts are absent, and this is also the 

 case in the much rarer black form. In the buff-barred form, from the 

 south and west of Ireland, the terminal buff spot takes the form of a mar- 

 ginal bar, and the feathers are practically indistinguishable from the breed- 

 ing or summer plumage. It may transpire that, in the south of Ireland, the 

 most southerly point of this bird's range, the female retains her breeding 

 plumage throughout the year, but this seems unlikely, and birds killed 

 between the months of April and August are wanted to settle this point. 



