LOCAL VARIATIONS IN PLUMAGE OF GROUSE
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- fine broken black cross-lines, while these cross-lines are sometimes almost absent.
- This gradual change from north to south of black, or red and black to dark red cocks, and farther south to bright red cocks is accompanied (speaking very broadly, for there are many exceptions) by a loss of the white terminal borders which characterise the feathers of the abdomen.
| ♂ | ♀ | Totals | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. to May | Jun. to Dec. | Nov. to April | May to Oct. | ||
| Caithness | 22 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 33 |
| Sutherland | 12 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 26 |
| Roes | 6 | 16 | 3 | 4 | 29 |
| Inverness | 30 | 14 | 5 | 8 | 57 |
| Nairn | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Moray | 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 12 |
| Banff | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Aberdeen | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 9 |
| Kincardine | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Forfar | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Perth | 17 | 16 | 5 | 13 | 51 |
| Argyll and Mull | 19+1 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 34 |
| Dumbarton | 14 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 22 |
| Stirling | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| Fife | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Haddington | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Midlothian | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 |
| Lanark | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Ayr | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 10 |
| Arran | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| Peebles | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Selkirk | 7 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 15 |
| Roxburgh | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Dumfries | 8 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 18 |
| Kirkcudbright | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| Wigtown | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Northumberland | 9 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 16 |
| Cumberland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| Durham | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Westmorland | 8 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| Lancashire | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Yorks | 28 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 68 |
| Derbyshire | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Wales | 10 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 13 |
| Ireland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 240 | 110 | 61 | 99 | 510 | |
There is no doubt that the blacker birds of the Highlands of the north of Scotland are more frequently white spotted beneath than the birds obtained
