1882.] PliUMAGE OF THE RED GROUSE. 113 



browner than in any of the other specimens. I have no speci- 

 mens from Wales, where they are said to be small and very light- 

 coloured." 



Thus you will see by the authors I have quoted that all agree in 

 the extreme variation in the plumage of the Red Grouse ; but, then, 

 all assign certain variations to certain localities and districts ; and I 

 wish to point out and illustrate by the series of specimens I exhibit 

 that as great amount of variation may be found amongst Grouse ob- 

 tained in a single locality as is mentioned by the authorities above 

 quoted, and that hereby the observation of Thompson (B. IreL ii. 

 p. 47) is partly corroborated. He states: — " It has been remarked to 

 me by sportsmen that the Grouse of Ireland and Scotland differ in 

 size and colour. This is apparently correct when birds of a certain 

 district are compared with those of another ; but it is, in my opinion, 

 a partial view of the subject, as in different localities throughout either 

 the one country or the other birds will be found equally to vary in 

 these respects. The following observations strikingly illustrate this 

 opinion : — A friend who shot over the moor of Glenroy, Inverness- 

 shire, in 184-^, observed that the Grouse differed much in their 

 plumage, and were of three varieties, each kind keeping particularly 

 to its own quarters. On the darkest and most heathy ground were 

 the darkest birds and the largest, weighing generally 2 lb. and some- 

 times 2 lb. 2 oz. On the rocky parts they were of a very much lighter 

 brown, while on the stony and heathy ground combined they were 

 of an intermediate brown, mottled more or less with white." 



Now my own observations do not fully bear out the remarks of 

 Thompson's friend ; for I have not only killed dark birds on light- 

 coloured ground, but, when the partially migratory habits of the 

 Red Grouse are considered, it is scarcely possible to suppose that 

 each individual would always pick out as its resting-place for the 

 time being the particular piece of ground that suited its own plumage 

 the best ; for the birds are always drawing down from the higher to 

 the lower ground as winter advances'. 



If we look at a large series of Grouse cocks (and unfortunately 

 my series is not large enough to show this well, as each bird has been 

 in most cases picked out as a representative of its own particular 

 class of variation), we shall find that their backs show but little 

 variation ; and I think No. 3 as described below is a very good 

 representative specimen. The hens here vary in a more marked 

 degree, the generality being a good deal speckled with lighter tints 

 of brown, as may be seen in No. 4 ; but of all the variations the true 

 Red Grouse, in the locahty whence the most of these specimens were 

 obtained, is the rarest. Nos. 1 and 2 are a very good pair ; they are 

 old and barren. 



A great part of the ground where these specimens were obtained 

 has the heather much mixed with a certain grass which is called 

 " deer's hair." This in the spring is quite yellow ; and I fancy these 



* .It. is obvious that ouce the ground is covered with snow the utility of 

 variation is done away with, as then all Grouse look as black as Eooks. 

 Proc. Zool. Soc— 1882, No. VIII. 8 



