44 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



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 plumage is examined. 



Opportunities for even seeing the hen Grouse, to say nothing of obtain- 

 ing 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 

 obtaining and at Cambridge, this phase is only poorly represented, 

 ousting The Committee has been to some extent more fortunate, and 

 p umage. ^ ag ^ a j ne( j a g rea t many skins of hens in the summer plumage 

 (see p. 54 and Appendix D), so that points of resemblance can be noted at 

 sight, and individual variations perforce take their proper places. It has 

 been a marked feature in the whole collection of six hundred skins that 

 as the series grew, and the general uniformity became more marked, the 

 individual variations of which we were inclined to make much at first, became 

 gradually relegated to their subordinate position. 



Uniformity, albeit with endless minor variations, is the rule in the 

 Grouse as it is in every other creature that leads an unprotected existence 

 under natural conditions. How long it will continue in the protected, often 

 over-protected, Grouse remains to be seen. It is possible that such variation 

 as already occurs is to some extent a modern development ; but on this 

 point there is at present insufficient evidence to amount to certainty. 



Beginning once more with January, it may be said that in this month 

 some hens, when examined on the under side, are hardly distinguishable by 

 their plumage from some cocks (PL vin.). On the dorsum it is 

 different, and a healthy hen in January is unmistakable owing to 

 the terminal spots of buff which appear almost invariably, though occasionally 

 in limited numbers, on the feathers of the back. In some healthy hens the 

 chin is sometimes still pale buff in colour, owing to the persistence of 

 summer-plumage feathers of the preceding year. The throat and fore-neck, 

 on the other hand, are copper-red, but rarely so uniformly red as in the 

 cock (PI. xvi., Fig. 1). The copper - red feathers seem to begin on the 

 fore-neck and proceed towards the chin, so that the chin often remains buff 

 and black when the throat is already red. Except in very backward birds, 

 which have been sick, the old and faded broad-barred feathers of the flanks 

 are never found in January. The legs and feet are white and thickly 

 feathered, and the claws are long and strong. 



