86 Wonders of the Bird World 



ing over the throat and fore-neck. The female, on the 

 other hand, is a plain ashy-brown bird, with the under 

 surface whitish, transversely barred with black. The young 

 male is at first like the mother bird, but the change to the 

 plumage of the adult male is not entirely accomplished by 

 a moult, but many of the feathers actually change their 

 pattern. Even some of the quills become black by a 

 gradual extension of the latter tint over the brown of the 

 original feather. The bars on the breast of the young 

 male are of a horse-shoe pattern, and these gradually break 

 up into irregular lines, and the feathers begin to darken on 

 their edges, and it is here that the colour ultimately becomes 

 of a velvety green. 



Mr. Ogilvie-Grant has recorded the same fact with 

 regard to the way in which the female of the Red Grouse 

 (LagopHS scoticus) attains her full dress.^ " In some birds 

 the whole of the alteration of the plumage of the flanks is 

 produced by change of pattern in the old autumn feathers, 

 in others the change is entirely produced by moult, while 

 sometimes both methods are employed by the same in- 

 dividual. In the former case, the first indication of the 

 coming change may be observed in the beginning of 

 November, or even earlier, when many of the flank-feathers 

 show traces of an irregular buff stripe or spot near the 

 terminal half of the shaft. As the bird only changes about 

 half its flank-feathers, these buff marks are only to be 

 observed on such as are destined to undergo alteration of 

 pattern, which, roughly speaking, means every second or 

 third feather. The buff spot gradually enlarges and spreads 

 along the shaft, then becomes constricted at intervals, and 

 broken up into patches which gradually extend laterally 

 towards the margins of the webs, forming wide irregular 

 buff bands. Meanwhile the interspaces become black, and 

 the rufous of autumn dies out. 



' ' Handbook to the Game-birds,' vol. i. p. 32. 



