60 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



buff -barred type, and the females from Yorkshire were all rather of the buff- 

 barred type, but none of these birds had quite the same markings as the Irish 

 example. See PI. x., female Grouse, in full summer plumage, Scottish 

 buff-barred type. 



PI. xvin., xx., xxi., and xxn. represent abnormal varieties of the Red 

 Grouse, and are drawn from specimens in the British Museum (Natural 

 History). They are described in the explanation of the plates. 



Two points in connection with the practical distinction of old Grouse 



from young, and of cock Grouse from hens, are of perennial interest both to 



the gamekeeper and to the sportsman. No discussion is more apt 



Method of 



ascertain- to produce different opinions than that which arises upon the age 

 or the sex of Grouse in certain stages of moulting, either at the 

 luncheon - hour upon the moor or in the game - larder when the day's bag 

 has been overhauled, and hung upon the hooks. It must be admitted 

 that there are individual cases occurring not rarely, in which it is almost 

 impossible to tell the sex until the bird has been cut open and the internal 

 anatomy examined. In these doubtful cases the only way to settle the 

 point is to cut the bird open down the middle of the abdomen, carefully 

 turn over the whole of the intestines from the right to the left that is, 

 from the bird's left side to the bird's right side without tearing the attach- 

 ments, and then, having exposed to view the flattened reddish kidneys 

 which lie closely packed into the inequalities of the backbone and pelvis, 

 to see whether an ovary or a testis is revealed overlying the uppermost 

 portion of them. 



In the breeding season, and in a breeding bird, there can be no doubt 

 whatever as to the sex, for the ovary is a conspicuous bunch of more or 

 Ovaries ^ ess developed ova in the hen ; and in the cock the testis is a 

 andtestes. conS pi cuous round, white object as large as the kernel of a good-sized 

 hazel-nut on each side of the backbone. 



There is but one ovary, and it lies always on the left side of the back- 

 bone of the bird. There are two testes, one lying on each side of the backbone, 

 the left one generally at a slightly lower level than the right. This develop- 

 ment of the ovary only on one, the left side, is the reason for advising the 

 examination to be made as described above, on the left side always. One 

 testis or the ovary cannot then be missed. 



If the bird examined thus is not breeding, as may often be the case 



