340 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



the feathered race towards their helpless young, in 

 no one bird is it displayed more strongly than in 

 the willow grouse. I remarked that when the young 

 were just cheepers, we used to find the broods much 

 in the little foot-tracks that run through the forest ; 

 and one afternoon, in the very end of June, I came 

 through the forest in a " bee line " down to Quick- 

 iock from the fells, and without beating the woods, in 

 a distance of less than ten English miles my dog 

 sprang about twenty-five broods, and I don't be- 

 lieve that the same brood ever rose twice. This 

 will give some idea of their numbers in these 

 forests. 



The willow grouse is subject to far less varia- 

 tion of plumage than the ptarmigan, for although 

 both sexes vary much in the shading of the colour- 

 ing, they have but two distinct dresses. The win- 

 ter dress is pure white, with fourteen black tail 

 feathers ; and the summer dress may be described 

 thus : Male, head and neck red-brown, often 

 chocolate, with a Hack chin ; body, black ground 

 covered with red-brown wavy lines ; belly, white. 

 Female, head, neck, breast, crown, and sides rusty 

 yellow, with black transverse bars ; back, shoulders, 

 rump, and the two middle tail feathers speckled 

 with rusty yellow transverse bars. The female 

 may be distinguished at a glance from the male by 

 the under tail- coverts, which are rusty yellow, with 



