LETTERS 



To the Editors of British Birds. 



"THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH GAME 

 BIRDS." By J. G. MILLAIS. 



Sirs, — In offering the following remarks on Mr. Millais' 

 work I should like it to be clearly understood that they are 

 not made in any spirit of carping criticism, but merely from 

 a desire to prevent important and interesting facts, which 

 have already been well ascertained and correctly described, 

 from being obscured or misrepresented. 



On turning over the leaves of Mr. Millais' imposing-looking 

 volume one had hoped to find that the life-history of the 

 few species included had been treated in such an exhaustive 

 manner that nothing of importance had been omitted or 

 could be added to throw further light on the subject. But, 

 unfortunately, this is by no means the case, and on reading 

 the letterpress Ave find many serious omissions, inaccuracies 

 and careless statements which seriously detract from the 

 work, and cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged. Mr. 

 Millais' work will be widely read, and we learn on the best 

 authority that the first edition has already been sold out ; it 

 is therefore necessary to draw attention to certain important 

 points which require revision in a possible subsequent edition. 



On page 37 one comes to the Red Grouse (Lagopus scoticus), 

 a species of unusual interest not only from an economic 

 point of view, but also on account of the complicated and 

 bewildering changes of plumage it undergoes. After devoting 

 many years to the study of these changes, I was the 

 first to discover exactly what takes place, and to explain the 

 laws which govern the apparently innumerable variations 

 in the plumage of both the male and the female. 



In 1893 I published a brief summary of the results of my 

 investigations in the " Catalogue of the Birds in the British 

 Museum " (XXIL, pp. 36-38) ; and later these were fully 

 described and illustrated in a paper by myself in the " Annals 

 of Scottish Natural History" (1894, pp. 129-140, pis. v. 

 and vi.), and in my " Handbook to the Game-Birds " 

 (i., pp. 27-34, pis. ii. and hi. (1895). Since that date I have 

 examined a very large number of Red Grouse and have found 



