55 [Vol, xxvii. 



Mr. W. P. Pycraft cited the case of a male Pheasant 

 in female plumage, which at the succeeding moult resumed 

 the normal plumage. He also suggested that it would be 

 interesting to re-examine some of these hen-feathered males 

 to ascertain to what extent the pattern of the plumage had 

 been, changed. It might be that the plumage of these 

 abnormal birds approached that of the female rather on 

 account of the lack of pignaentation than because of a change 

 of pattern in the feathers. 



Mr. MiLLAis also made the following remarks on the 

 partial summer-plumage of the male of the Red Grouse, in 

 answer to Mr. Ogilvie-Grant's paper which had been read 

 on June the 15th, 1910 [cf. Bulk B. O. C. xxv. p. 122 

 (1910)] :- 



" It is somewhat difficult to submit to the Members of the 

 Club a question in which three ornithologists only have 

 specialized — viz., Dr. E. A. Wilson, Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, and 

 myself, — because we cannot lay before them the whole of 

 our material. Mr. Grant in denying that any spring-moult 

 takes place states that there is no moult till the end of 

 April, and that the bird makes ' practically no change till 

 the end of May or beginning of June.^ Now I place before 

 the Members new feathers (blood-quills) taken from birds 

 killed as early as the 24th of March and onwards throughout 

 April. I maintain that these are the ornamental and partial 

 breeding-plumage of the cock Grouse. Mr. Grant, after 

 stating in his book on Game-Birds and elsewhere that birds 

 breed in their winter-plumage, now alters his views and 

 admits that he finds one or two new feathers of the ' autumn- 

 plumage ' making their appearance towards the end of April. 

 If the Members of the Club will examine the specimens 

 placed before them they will see a great many more than 

 one or two feathers, for in some cases the whole of the head 

 and nape are in a state of moult. Mr. Grant also states 

 that I have mistaken old autumn feathers for new ones. 

 That is impossible, because I have called no feathers new 

 except those which I myself have plucked with the quiUs- 



