58 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



PI. iv. Under surface : white-spotted form. 



Male Grouse, No. 1377. Morayshire, 24.4.08. 



Turning next to the female Eed Grouse, no less than five distinct types 

 are described by Mr Ogilvie - Grant : a red form, a black form, a white-spotted 

 form, a buff- spotted form and a buff- barred form. 



The difficulty in sorting hen Grouse into these classes is that a single bird 

 may fall under three headings at once. A hen Grouse may be at once buff- 

 spotted, white-spotted, and red or black, for the white spotting is an independent 

 character and may occur on any type in the autumn plumage of the breast and 

 abdomen, and this may also be definitely of the red or the black type. 



In the Committee's collection, the first or red form is well represented 

 from all parts of the country, and follows very much the same distribution 

 as the red type of the cock Grouse. 



Red examples were procured from the following areas : Sutherland (3), 

 Argyll (9), Arran (1), Dumbarton (1), Cumberland (1), Westmorland (1), and 

 Red type, Wales (3), all bright red birds; Ross-shire, all dark red; Inverness- 

 shire (3), very bright red and (3) very dark red birds ; Aberdeen (3), 

 very dark red birds ; Stirling (4), red birds, with very fine black markings 

 on the breast. Perthshire, Moray, Kincardine, Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbright, 

 Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire were all represented by red hens, 

 generally of the dark red type. 



The following specimen has been figured, illustrating the red type of hen 

 Grouse : 



PI. ix. Under surface : red type changing from autumn to summer plumage. 

 Female Grouse, No. 226. Roxburghshire, 22.5.06. 



The second or blade form of hen is certainly, as Mr Ogilvie-Grant says, 

 Black type extremely uncommon, and only one or perhaps two of the Committee's 

 hens. birds should be included under this heading. Two others are, however, 

 so dark as to come with difficulty under the category of red birds. 



Caithness produced a really black hen bird (No. 418), the sex of which 

 could not possibly have been determined from its plumage. It appears to 

 be an old hen, which has assumed male plumage. Specimen No. 338 from 

 Inverness is almost as dark a bird, and No. 559 is a very dark reddish-black 

 bird. No. 414 from Dumbartonshire is similarly a case in which there seems 

 to be more black than dark red. 



