1910.] PLUMAGE OF THE RED ailOU8E. 1019 



there are almost no sick cocks ; whereas, after May, the hens have 

 still two very trying months to face, and although, thanks to the 

 abundance of food, they probably most of them or nearly all of 

 them succeed in struggling through, yet by Avignst they have only 

 just been relieved of their moi^e pressing cai-es and disabilities, and 

 so in August a very great number of them are still found to be in 

 a very poor condition. The moment the disabilities are removed, 

 however, they begin to recover, and it is this point which has so 

 constantly been ovei-looked. Sick birds in August are convalescent, 

 and however many there may be, it is not a sign of a new out- 

 break of disease, but a sign that the j^ast spiing infection was a 

 heavy one, though less fatal than it might have been. 



At the end of their own sjjecially critical pei'iods, the cocks 

 have at any rate June, July, and August in which to pull them- 

 selves together by means of good food assisted by good weather ; 

 whereas the hens, at the end of their own specially critical period, 

 have August and September. Hence the preponderance of sick- 

 looking hens when the shooting begins, and the widespread, but 

 eiTO)ieous, belief in a i-ecrudescence of disease in autumn. 



To retui-n to the further considera,tion of the hen's change of 

 plumage in September, her finest feature is now undoubtedly the 

 clean new growth of bright red, or dark red or even black and 

 white-flecked feathers of the breast and abdomen, with their 

 narrow but even blacker markings. 



The whole of this tract has now been shed, but is so quickly 

 overgrown again that no bai-e skin is visible save in the middle 

 area of the abdomen quite low down, where, as has been already 

 pointed out, the new growth is of belated feathers coloured as 

 in the spring-plumage, and therefore quite different to the rest 

 ai'ound them. 



There is still, as a rule, no access of new red feathers on the chin 

 or throat of the healthy September hen, or at the most but a 

 feather or two. But in the sick hen there is still often a sprinkling 

 of the old red feathers of the preceding autumn-plumage, very 

 faded, amongst the faded buff and black feathers of the belated 

 spring-plumage. 



On the back of even forward hens there is still a mixture of old 

 and new plumage, and the scapulars are often faded to some- 

 thing like black and white, and are badly frayed at the ends. 



The wings have now almost completed their moult, but thei-e 

 may still be a primary or two to change, even in veiy forward 

 birds. 



The legs and feet are rapidly becoming feathered for the winter, 

 though in backward birds which have been sick they are still 

 quite bare, and now, of course, this feature is quite truly to be 

 taken as a sifi:n of sickness and disease, though in a convalescing 

 bird. 



In October one may find a very backw-ard bird with as many 

 as three worn-out primaries in either wing to change; but, as a 

 rule, the wing is perfect, the primaries and secondaries and their 



