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Show 1882.] PLUMAGE OF THE RED GROUSE. 113 browner than in any of the other specimens. I have no specimens from Wales, where they are said to be small and very light-coloured." Thus you will see by the authors I have quoted that all agree in the extreme variation in the plumage of the Red Grouse; but, then, all assign certain variations to certain localities and districts; and I wish to point out and illustrate by the series of specimens I exhibit that as great amount of variation may be found amongst Grouse obtained in a single locality as is mentioned by the authorities above quoted, and that hereby the observation of Thompson (B. IreL ii. p. 47) is partly corroborated. He states:-" It has been remarked to m e by sportsmen that the Grouse of Ireland and Scotland differ in size and colour. This is apparently correct when birds of a certain district are compared with those of another ; but it is, in m y opinion, a partial view of the subject, as in different localities throughout either the one country or the other birds will be found equally to vary in these respects. The following observations strikingly illustrate this opinion : - A friend who shot over the moor of Glenroy, Inverness-shire, in 1844, observed that the Grouse differed much in their plumage, and were of three varieties, each kind keeping particularly to its own quarters. On the darkest and most heathy ground were the darkest birds and the largest, weighing generally 2 lb. and sometimes 2 lb. 2 oz. On the rocky parts they were of a very much lighter brown, while on the stony and heathy ground combined they were of an intermediate brown, mottled more or less with white." N o w m y own observations do not fully bear out the remarks of Thompson's friend; for I have not only killed dark birds on light-coloured ground, but, when the partially migratory habits of the Red Grouse are considered, it is scarcely possible to suppose that each individual would always pick out as its resting-place for the time being the particular piece of ground that suited its own plumage the best; for the birds are always drawing down from the higher to the lower ground as winter advances1. If we look at a large series of Grouse cocks (and unfortunately m y series is not large enough to show this well, as each bird has been in most cases picked out as a representative of its own particular class of variation), we shall find that their backs show but little variation ; and I think No. 3 as described below is a very good representative specimen. The hens here vary in a more marked degree, the generality being a good deal speckled with lighter tints of brown, as m a y be seen in N o . 4 ; but of all the variations the true Red Grouse, in the locality whence the most of these specimens were obtained, is the rarest. Nos. 1 and 2 are a very good pair; they are old and barren. A great part of the ground where these specimens were obtained has the heather much mixed with a certain grass which is called " deer's hair." This in the spring is quite yellow ; and I fancy these i It is obvious that once the ground is covered with snow the utility of variation is done away with, as then all Grouse look as black as Books. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1882, No. VIII. 8 |