Page:GrouseinHealthVol1.djvu/118

58 Pl. Under surface: white-spotted form. Male Grouse, No. 1377. Morayshire, 24.4.08. Turning next to the female Red Grouse, no less than five distinct types are described by Mr Ogilvie-Grant: a red form, a black form, a white- spotted form, a buff-spotted form and a buff-barred form. The difficulty in sorting hen Grouse into these classes is that a single bird may fall under three headings at once. A hen Grouse may be at once buff-spotted, white-spotted, and red or black, for the white spotting is an independent character and may occur on any type in the autumn plumage of the breast and abdomen, and this may also be definitely of the red or the black type. In the Committee's collection, the first or red form is well represented from all parts of the country, and follows very much the same distribution as the red type of the cock Grouse. Red examples were procured from the following areas: — Sutherland (3), Argyll (9), Arran (1), Dumbarton (1), Cumberland (l), Westmorland (1), and Wales (3), all bright red birds; Ross-shire, all dark red; Inverness-shire (3), very bright red and (3) very dark red birds; Aberdeen (3), very dark red birds; Stirling (4), red birds, with very fine black markings on the breast. Perthshire, Moray, Kincardine, Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbright, Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire were all represented by red hens, generally of the dark red type. The following specimen has been figured, illustrating the red type of hen Grouse: —

Pl. . Under surface: red type changing from autumn to summer plumage. Female Grouse, No. 226. Roxburghshire, 22.5.06. The second or black form of hen is certainly, as Mr Ogilvie-Grant says, extremely uncommon, and only one or perhaps two of the Committee's birds should be included under this heading. Two others are, however, so dark as to come with difficulty under the category of red birds. Caithness produced a really black hen bird (No. 418), the sex of which could not possibly have been determined from its plumage. It appears to be an old hen, which has assumed male plumage. Specimen No. 338 from Inverness is almost as dark a bird, and No. 559 is a very dark reddish-black bird. No. 414 from Dumbartonshire is similarly a case in which there seems to be more black than dark red.