THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
ovary, commonly assume a partial male plumage. The most complete 
examples are very handsome birds, with the chin barred black and 
white, the throat pure white, and with much black in the plumage, 
especially on the lower back, breast and abdomen. The white bases of 
the secondary quills are much more extensive, and form a visible white 
speculum on the wing when closed, as in the blackcock. The tail is long, 
deeply forked, and black, the tips of the feathers being narrowly edged 
with white. 
Male assuming female plumage . — In the British Museum there is a speci- 
men procured at Perm, East Russia, which is said to be a male in female 
plumage. It resembles the most complete form of female in male plumage, 
described above, and is a very handsomely marked bird. The determi- 
nation of the sex in this specimen is, however, somewhat doubtful, and 
probably rests on the authority of some Russian taxidermist. 
Variations in plumage . — ^Variations in plumage are not very common among 
black-game, but birds with partially white plumage are occasionally met 
with. Pied blackcocks, with their whole body -plumage spangled with 
white, are sometimes shot, and are curious and distinctly handsome 
birds. There is a very fine mounted specimen in the Natural History 
Museum, presented by Mr G. Ashley Dodd in 1908. A very similar looking 
bird was presented to the National Collection some years previously 
by the late Lord Tweedmouth, but, on close examination, it proved to 
be “a fake,” all the white feathers having been neatly glued in among the 
black plumage by some dishonest person ! 
Males have been shot with the wings and tail white, with the whole 
underside white, and with the entire plumage silvery grey ; and females 
with the plumage pure white, greyish -white, and pale buff. 
Besides these, other remarkable birds of both sexes in mixed plumage 
have from time to time been obtained, and a large number of these in- 
teresting specimens are to be seen in the Hon. Walter Rothschild’s splendid 
collection at Tring. 
General distribution . — ^The black grouse is found in suitable localities 
over the greater part of Europe and Northern and Central Asia. In the 
west it ranges to Great Britain, Holland, Scandinavia and Russia up to 
69° N. lat. ; eastwards it extends to North-east Siberia up to about 67° N. 
lat. ; though it is not known to occur in the Pyrenees, it is met with in 
North Italy, North Caucasus, the Tian Shan Mountains, and South 
Manchuria. 
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