1910.] I'LUMAUi: l)F Tin; REU GUOUSK. lOlo 



skins at South KeiKsiugton and at Cambridge, for example, this 

 phase is somewhat poorly represented. 



The Grouse Inquiry Committee has been to some extent more 

 fortunate and has obtained a great many skins of hens in the 

 summer-plumage (see schedule of material, p. 1022), so that points 

 of resemblance can be noted at sight and individual variations per- 

 force take their proper and, as it turns out, rather less significant 

 places. It has been a marked feature in the whole collection 

 of 580 skins, that as the series grew and the general uniformity 

 became more marked, the individual variations of which one was 

 inclined to make much at first became gradually relegated to 

 their subordinate position in the background. 



Uniformity, albeit with endless minor variations, is the rule in 

 the Grouse as it is in every other creature that leads an unpro- 

 tected existence under natui-al conditions. How long it will 

 continue in the protected, often over-protected, Grouse, remains 

 to be seen. It is possible that such variations as already occur 

 are to some extent a modern development, but on this point there 

 is at present insufficient evidence to amount to certaintv. 



Beginning once more with January^ and considering the 

 changes of plumage from month to month in the hen Grouse, it 

 may be said that some hens when examined on the under side 

 are hardly distinguishable in this month by their plumage from 

 some cocks. On the dorsum it is different, and a healthy hen in 

 January is unmistakable owing to the terminal sj)Ots of baft" which 

 appear almost invariably, though occasionally in limited numbers, 

 on the feathers of the back. 



In some healthy hens the chin is sometimes still pale l)ufi" in 

 colour, owing to the persistence of summer-plumage feathers of 

 the preceding year. The throat and fore-neck, on the other 

 hand, ai'e copper-red, but rarely so uniformly red as in the cock 

 (PI. XCIV.). 



The copper-red feathers seem to begin on the fore-neck and 

 proceed towards the chin, so that the chin often remains bufi' and 

 black when the throat is already red. 



Except in very backward birds, which have been sick, the old 

 and faded broad-barred feathers of the flanks are nevcr found in 

 January. The legs and feet are white and thickly feathered and 

 the claws are long and strong. 



In February the bird is still in the same plumage as in 

 January. In a few forward birds the feathers of the sununer- 

 dress are beginning to make theii' appearance on the 1)ack of the 

 neck about the middle of the month. 



In March, the change from autumn-plumage to spring breeding- 

 plumage is, in healthy birds, now cpiite unmistakable, though 

 many birds are very backward owing to disease. All doubt as 

 to the sex, whether from above or below, is now removed except 

 in cases of disease. 



The broad-barred buft" and black feathers of the flanks are now 

 appearing and are most conspicuous and characteristic, while the 



Piiur. ZooL. Sue. -1910, Xu. LXYl. 6G 



