LETTERS. 383 



year ; and, secondly, I decline to accept Mr. Grant's views 

 on the subject of any of the " Grouse Commission " birds, 

 because apparently he did not himself examine them in the 

 flesh. I have closely examined as many specimens as were 

 necessary for determining what I consider to be the correct 

 summary of all the plumages of the Red Grouse at all seasons, 

 and maintain that my views are accurate. If other naturalists 

 are in doubt as to my conclusions let them begin at the begin- 

 ning and take a series of freshly-killed birds, not less than 

 ten a month, and publish a report of their observations. 

 On this point I regard Mr. Grant as a prejudiced witness. 



With regard to Mr. Grant's objections as to my treating the 

 various local races of P. colchicus throughout Central and 

 Northern Asia as sub-species when he himself has gone to 

 such trouble to enumerate them as good species, I can only 

 say that I am sorry that I, in company with a good many 

 other naturalists, dissent from his view. But that Mr. Grant 

 should draw a comparison between the various local races 

 of Pheasants and such widely different birds of separate 

 genera as Black Grouse and Capercaillie I fail to see, for I 

 have distinctly formulated a basis on which I claim that 

 the Colchian Pheasants should be regarded as I have placed 

 them, namely, that the various sub-species interbreed, and 

 that their progeny is again fertile, and so on inter se and ad 

 infinitum. If birds of such separate genera as Black Grouse, 

 Red Grouse, and Capercaillie do interbreed by chance the 

 results are invariably infertile, and prove their inability 

 to continue such unnatural alliances. 



Because some Colchian Pheasants (for instance, P. c. 

 torquatus and P. c. decollatus) have wandered up a river- 

 system, crossed a mountain-range, and dropped or added 

 white necks owing to certain local conditions conducive 

 to variation, I do not see why they should be regarded as 

 new species. In fact, that is how a sub-specific race is formed. 

 To arguments as to what constitutes a good species and what 

 does not I have listened until I confess I am tired of the 

 subject, and because Mr. Grant differs from me on this point 

 I see no further need of discussion, as we shall not agree. 



Lastly, with regard to omissions. Well ! what author 

 ever did succeed in raising his work to the level of his ambi- 

 tions ? I should like to have given coloured figures of every 

 change of plumage in the Grouse and every hybrid variety, 

 and immature plumage of all species, as well as eggs and young 

 in down. That is what I should have liked to have done, 

 but has Mr. Grant considered that my book cost eight guineas 



