191 0.1 PLUMACE lit' Tin: KKD GROUSE. 1025 



Turning next to the female Retl Grouse, no less than five 

 distinct types are described by Mr. Ogilvie-Grant :— 



1. The red. 



2. The black. 



3. The white-spott'd. 



4. The buff-spotted. 



5. The l)uff- barred. 



The dilHi-ultv in sorting out hen (Arouse into these classes is 

 that a single bird may fall under three headings at once. A hen 

 Grouse may l)e at once IJuff-spotted, Wliite-spotted, and lied or 

 Black, for the white spotting is an independent character and 

 ma,y occur on any type in the autumn-pknnage of tlie breast and 

 abdomen, and tliis "may also be definitely of the red or the black 



type. 



In the Grouse Inquiry's Collection, the first or red type is well 

 represented from all parts of the country, and follows very much 

 the same distribution as the red type of the cock Grouse. 



Red examples were procured from the following areas : — 

 Sutherland (3), Argyll (9), Arran (1), Dumbaiton (1), Cumber- 

 land (1), Westmorland (1), and Wales (3), all bright red birds ; 

 Ross-shire, all dark red ; Inverness-shire, (3) very bright red and 

 (3) very dark red birds; Aberdeen, (3) very dark red birds; 

 Stirlini;', (4) red birds, with very fine black markings on the breast. 

 Perthshire, Moray, Kincardine, Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbriglit, 

 Northumberland,' Durham, and Yorkshire were all represented 

 by red hens, generally of tlie dark red type. 



" The following specimen has been figured, illustrating the red 

 type of hen Grouse : — 



Plate LXXXVIT. Under surface : red type changing from 

 winter- to summer-plumage. 

 Female Grouse, No. 226. Roxburghshire, 22.V.0G. 



The second or black type of hen is certainly, as Mr. Ogilvie-- 

 Grant says, extremely uncommon, and only one or perhaps two of 

 the Committee's birds should be included under this heading. 

 Two others are, however, so dark as to come with difficulty undei- 

 the category of red birds. 



Caithness produced a, really black hen bird (No. 418), the sex 

 of which could not possi'hly have been determined from its plumage. 

 It appeai-s to be an old hen, which has assumed male plumage. 



Specimen No. 338 from Inverness is almost as dark a l)ird, 

 and No. 55V) is :v very dark reddish-black bird. 



No. 414 from Duiiibartonshire is similarly a casein which ilicre 

 seems to be more black than dark red. 



The following si)ecimeu luus been figured to illustrate the black 

 type of female Grouse : — 



Plate LXXXY. Under surface: black type in autumn- 

 plumage. 

 Female Grouse, No. 418. Caithness, 31.xii.06. 



