236 
British Birds. 
westwards in large numbers, and on these occasions it has visited Great 
Britain. One great irruption took place in 1863, and another in 1888, On the last 
occasion some of the birds lingered on till the next summer and bred here. They 
make no nest, but the eggs are laid in a slight hole in the ground. The eggs are 
three or four in number, of an olive or brownish-buff colour, spotted with brown or 
pale olive, with underlying grey markings, and are unmistakable on account of their 
perfectly oval shape. 
The Game-Birds .— Order Galliformes. 
This Order of Birds is too familiar to everyone of my readers to need an elaborate 
description of its characteristics. Many anatomical features separate the Game- 
Birds from all the other Orders, but their external form is so well known that there 
is no need to characterize them in detail. 
The Grouse are distinguished from the other British Game- 
THE 
RED GROUSE. 
(Lagopns scoticus.) 
birds by their feathered nostrils and feathered toes. Our Red 
Grouse is perhaps the most characteristically ‘ British ’ species 
which we pos- 
sess, for it is found nowhere else 
than in Great Britain. Considerable 
variation in the shade of its colour- 
ing is met with in different localities, 
and the male and female do not go 
through the same process of change 
of plumage, for whereas the male 
moults into an autumn dress and 
again into a winter one, he retains 
the latter through the breeding sea- 
son until the next autumn moult 
supervenes. The female moults in 
summer and autumn only, and has 
no distinct winter plumage, while 
the male has no distinct summer 
plumage. 
The Red Gkouse. 
