The following specimen has been figured to illustrate the black type of female Grouse: —
Pl. viii. Under surface: black type in autumn plumage.
Female Grouse, No. 418. Caithness, 31.12.06.
The third or white-spotted form is less rare, and, according to Mr Ogilvie-Grant, occurs as often as in the male. In the Committee's collection White-
spotted
type,
hens. it is well represented by birds from Sutherland (No. 1336); Ross-shire, a bird of the red type (No. 176); and Inverness (No. 329).
It was less to be expected that examples both of the red type and of a darker type, bordering on the black, should have been met with in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Westmorland. Single examples were also procured in Dumfries and Kincardine. There is a fine Irish example from co. Mayo in the British Museum (Natural History), No. 99 12.1.1.
The fourth or buff-spotted form of hen Grouse, said to be "much the commonest and most usually met with, has the feathers of the upper parts spotted at the tip with whitish buff."[1] This type is generally distributed, and Buff-
spotted
type,
hens. the Committee's collection includes examples from Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Perthshire, Ayrshire, Kincardine, Dumfries, Northumberland, Yorkshire, Westmorland, and Lancashire.
The fifth orbuff-barred form, according to Mr Ogilvie-Grant, "is met with in the south of Ireland, and resembles in winter (autumn plumage) the ordinary female in breeding plumage, having the upper parts coarsely Buff-
barred
type,
hens. barred with buff and black. Very little is known of this last barred variety, owing to the difficulty of obtaining birds except during the shooting season."[2]
The repeated endeavours of the Committee to obtain specimens resulted in one hen only being obtained from Donegal. This bird (No. 1217) was a very typical example of the buff-barred type, and it certainly differed from anything procured either in Scotland, England, or Wales.
PI. xix. Under surface: buff-barred form in autumn plumage.
Female Grouse, No. 1217. Donegal, Ireland, 17.10.07.
The nearest approach to it was to be found in four hens from Selkirkshire, and in hens from Inverness-shire, which were more accurately described as buff-barred than as buff-spotted. Single examples from Lanark, Midlothian, Roxburgh, Haddington, and Northumberland might be classed in the
- ↑ "Handbook to the Game Birds," p. 28.
- ↑ Ibid.
