1882. ] PLUMAGE 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, 
apartial 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 1844, 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 1b. and some- 
times 2 lh.2 0z- 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 lecality whence the most of these specimens were 
obtained, isthe 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 
1 It is obvious that once the ground is covered with snow the utility of 
variation is done away with, as then all Grouse look as black as Rooks, 
Proc. Zoo. Soc.—1882, No. VIII. 8 
