LETTERS 



To the Editors of British Birds. 



"THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH GAME 

 BIRDS." 



Sirs, — In your issue for March 1st Mr. Ogilvie-Grant 

 criticises certain statements in my work bearing the above 

 title, and describes them as " inaccuracies," " careless 

 statements," and " serious omissions." Under the two 

 first headings he states that he was the first to discover 

 exactly " what took place, and to explain the laws which 

 govern the apparently innumerable variations in the plumage 

 of both the male and the female " Red Grouse. 



With reference to this claim, I would point out that Mr. 

 Grant published his views respectively in 1893 and 1894, 

 whilst my book, " Game Birds and Shooting Sketches," 

 dealing with the subject, and describing in detail the main 

 forms, phases and intermediate types of the Red Grouse, 

 as well as giving illustrations of all these, was published in 

 1892. My views (pp. 55-58) he seems to have adopted 

 (" Game Birds," pp. 27-28) as his own, without any acknow- 

 ledgment of my previous work on the subject. 



As " Game Birds and Shooting Sketches " was written 

 principally for sportsmen, I determined that at some future 

 date I would endeavour to collect the substance of certain 

 observations I had been making continuously since 1892, 

 and so published the results last year. During this period 

 I have been constantly shooting Grouse and examining speci- 

 mens at all seasons of the year. I may say that I have seen 

 tens of thousands of Grouse killed, and have been adding to 

 my 4 hotes and collection of these birds, so that now I have a 

 collection that is in my estimation far superior to that in the 

 British Museum. 



If Mr. Grant had read my recently published book carefully 

 he would have seen that I do not deny that to a great 

 extent the male Grouse breeds in its winter-plumage, but what 

 I have ascertained is that a large number of these winter 

 feathers are shed between February and June (in all cases 

 individual birds are most irregular), and that what he calls 

 an autumn-plumage, and what I assert is a spring dress, 

 consisting of bright and ornamental feathers, comes into the 

 head, neck (and also to the scapulars and rump) before the 



