382 BRITISH BIRDS. 



beginning of June. Mr. Grant states that I have quite mis- 

 taken the meaning of these new feathers, and that, properly 

 speaking, they are only the sombre autumnal dress, which 

 is, roughly speaking, assumed in the end of June. To this 

 I reply that a plumage must be named after the date at which 

 it exhibits itself. This ornamental dress is complete often 

 as early as the end of April (I enclose a few feathers taken 

 from a bird killed last year on April 1st, and these are more than 

 half developed). How then can Mr. Grant call this an 

 autumnal plumage ? Late in June the real autumn-plumage 

 appears, when the spring-feathers have faded, and together 

 they remain till the main moult in August-September. 



Mr. Grant has suddenly discovered that he knew of this 

 spring ornamental plumage all the time, and which he now 

 calls the autumn-dress, and yet in his " Game Birds " he 

 never mentions it, but says most distinctly (p. 30) with regard 

 to this so-called winter-summer plumage, " When once the 

 winter moult is complete (i.e., November) no change whatever 

 takes place in the plumage of the male till the following autumn 

 moult, except that the feathers become bleached and worn 

 at the extremities." This I have characterised as an 

 absolutely incorrect view of the case. I have shown by my 

 descriptions that as early as February and throughout March 

 and April, there is a large assumption of new spring-feathers, 

 which are often quite developed by the middle of April. 

 These are ornamental and become faded and worn before 

 the main flush of the autumn-plumage commences at the end 

 of June. Moreover, other changes are taking place by the 

 moulting of winter-feathers and a complete renewal of the 

 feathers of the legs and feet. If this is what Mr. Grant calls 

 " no change whatever ," I am at a loss to understand how he 

 made his observations and on what grounds he bases his strange 

 views. According to such an argument, a Knot, which gets 

 its summer-plumage in March and April, is really in autumn- 

 plumage because it sheds its red summer-dress in August. 

 In fact, a male Grouse has to breed in its winter-autumn 

 dress because Mr. Grant says so. As a matter of fact, the 

 male Grouse sheds in September and August a plumage 

 which is a mixture of its winter, spring, and eclipse feathers. 



Mr. Grant states that if I had visited the Bird-Room of 

 the Natural History Museum and seen the series of Grouse 

 there represented by 150 specimens, I would at once have 

 seen the error of my ways. In the first place it is nearly im- 

 possible to ascertain facts with regard to plumage-change 

 without examining and plucking freshly-killed birds, which 

 I did to the number of fifty between February and July of last 



