RED GROUSE. 357 



Iii 1811, a pair of Red Grouse bred in the aviary at 

 Knowsley ; the female laid ten eggs, and hatched out eight 

 young birds ; but these, from some unknown cause, did not 

 live many days. Earl Derby, then Lord Stanley, also 

 communicated to Colonel Montagu the occurrence of a mot- 

 tled brown and white variety of the Red Grouse, very much 

 resembling the Ptarmigan when in its summer plumage, 

 which was shot in Lancashire in the month of August. 



A male bird of the year, killed in December, has the 

 beak black ; the irides hazel, with a crescentic patch of 

 vermilion red skin over the eye, fringed at its upper free 

 edge ; head and neck reddish brown, but more rufous than 

 any other part of the bird ; back, wing, and tail-coverts, 

 chestnut brown, barred transversely and speckled with 

 black ; distributed among the plumage are several feathers 

 in which the ground colour is of a bright yellowish brown ; 

 all the quill-feathers dark umber brown ; the secondaries 

 and the tertials edged on the outside, and freckled with 

 lighter brown ; the tail of eighteen feathers ; the seven on 

 each outside dark umber brown ; the four middle feathers 

 chestnut brown, varied with black. On the breast the 

 plumage is darker than on the sides, almost black, and 

 tipped with white ; the chestnut brown feathers on the 

 sides, flanks, belly, vent, and under tail-coverts tipped with 

 white; legs and toes covered with short greyish white 

 feathers ; claws long, bluish-horn colour at the base, nearly 

 white at the end. 



The whole length sixteen inches. From the carpal joint 

 to the end of the wing, eight inches and three-eighths : the 

 first quill-feather shorter than the sixth, but longer than 

 the seventh ; the second shorter than the fifth, but longer 

 than the sixth ; the third and fourth nearly equal in length, 

 and the longest in the wing. 



