RED GROUSE. 
267 
feathers are retained, and are conspicuous among the new 
winter plumage. The rest of the under parts remain the same 
as after the autumn moult. _ 
“The general colour of each bird varies, of course, according 
to the type to which it belongs, some being darker, some lighter. 
When once the winter moult is complete, no change whatever 
takes place in the plumage of the male till the following autumn 
moult, except that the feathers become bleached and worn at 
the extremities. 
“Adult Female, Autunm-Winter Plumage.^ — Upper parts black, 
with narrow irregular bars and mottlings of rufous, and a buff 
spot at the tip of most of the feathers (pi. iii. figs- 2 and 3) , 
chest and flank-feathers narrowly and often irregularly barred 
with rufous and black, and usually more or less Upped with 
buff (pi. iii. figs. 10 and n). The rest of the under parts 
are dark chestnut, mottled and barred with black, or black 
barred with chestnut, ff'he typical white-spotted form differs, 
of course, in having the feathers of the under parts widely 
tipped with white. 
Adult Female, Summer Plumage. — 
“A. Feathers of the Upper parts. 
“ So far as I have been able to ascertain from examining a 
large number of specimens, the summer feathers of the upper 
parts are always attained by moult, and never by change of 
pattern The summer moult of these parts is very complete, 
and the transformation from the autumn-winter plumage very 
remarkable. Every female assumes the summer plumage, and 
at this season all the different types closely resemble one 
another, but one can generally tell by the colour of the under 
* The form described is the commonest or buff-spotted form of the female 
in autumn plumage. In typical examples of the red form the buff spots at 
ihe ends of the feathers of the upper parts are absent, and this is also the 
case in the much rarer black form. In the buff-barred form, from the 
south and west of Ireland, the terminal buff spot takes the form of a mar- 
uinal bar, and the feathers are practically indistinguishable from the breed- 
ing or summer plumage. It may transpire that, in the south of Ireland, the 
most southerly point of this bird’s range, the female retains her breeding 
nlumage throughout the year, but this seems unlikely, and birds killed 
between the months of April and August are wanted to settle this point. 
