RED GROUSE 
Perthshire, Stirlingshire and one or two other counties, while very dark 
birds with a large admixture of black in the plumage, have been ex- 
amined from Inverness-shire and Dumbartonshire. 
(3.) The white-spotted form. — ^As in the male, typical examples are most 
numerous and characteristic in birds from the Highlands. The white 
spotting may be found on birds belonging to the red, the black, or the 
buff-spotted types. 
(4.) The buff-spotted form. — ^This is much the commonest type, and that 
usually met with; the feathers of the upperparts are spotted at the tip 
with whitish or pale buff. 
(5.) The buff-barred form. — ^This type is characteristic of the majority 
of birds from Ireland. The upperparts are coarsely barred with buff 
and black, and the female in autumn-plumage resembles the female from 
Great Britain in breeding -plumage. 
The breeding -plumage of the buff-barred form does not differ from the 
autumn -plumage, and in spring we find the old autumn -feathers being re- 
placed by an almost perfectly similar plumage. The advantage of this 
change is not apparent, the old plumage being equally protective. 
Adtdt male. Autumn-plumage ^ from the end of May or beginning of June 
to the beginning of October. — After the breeding-season a very complete 
autumn -moult takes place, the quills, tail, and feathers on the feet being 
entirely renewed. In most examples the feathers of the upperparts are 
black, margined, and irregularly barred with tawny -buff; the bars usually 
cross the feathers more or less transversely, but in some individuals the 
outer bars are more or less concentric, and parallel with the marginal 
band, giving the upperparts a somewhat scaled appearance. The feathers 
of the chest are rather widely barred with buff or rufous -buff and black, 
and some of the flank -feathers are more narrowly barred with the same 
colours. The rest of the under parts varies according to the type to 
which the individual belongs, being chestnut, black, or white -spotted, 
or a mixture of all three. Birds obtained early in June having com- 
menced their autumn-moult on the neck and upper mantle display three 
different sets of feathers: the bright new black and buff autumn -feathers, 
those belonging to the previous autumn (some of which are almost 
invariably retained), and the old winter -plumage, the feathers of the 
two last-named plumages being very worn and faded. 
Males at this season, no matter to what type they belong, bear a much 
closer resemblance to one another than they do in their winter -plumage, 
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