56 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GROUSE 



CHAPTER IV 



THE PLUMAGE OF THE GROUSE 



CONSIDERABLE interest attaches to the plumage of the 

 grouse, and most sportsmen have had occasion to 

 remark upon the great variability of both sexes. This 

 would not apply to the chicks, which are at first 

 clothed in fine down, greyish yellow in ground colour, 

 prettily variegated with chestnut and dark-brown 

 markings. Nor does it apply either to the birds in first 

 feather. 'At first the upper parts are brownish black, 

 each feather edged and barred with yellow,' says Mac- 

 gillivray, and a young bird in my hand agrees with 

 this description, though some of the edgings to the 

 feathers are pale chestnut rather than yellow, and the 

 extremities of the feathers of the interscapular region 

 are spotted with buffy white ; the lower parts are 

 yellowish grey barred with pale reddish yellow. From 

 this condition the birds pass gradually into the chief 

 stages of adult plumage, which have been very cleverly 

 worked out by Mr. J. G. Millais, who possesses a 



