The feathers of the legs and feet of healthy birds are rapidly growing to form thick, white stockings for the winter. Bare legs in September are a sign of belated moult or, in other words, a sign of sickness.
In October, for the first time since the preceding winter, the red and black varieties of Red Grouse become once more conspicuously distinct. This October result is due to the new growth of fully pigmented feathers, either red or black, upon the under surface of the body. The upper neck is rapidly becoming copper-red. The chin and throat still show a proportion of the faded buff "autumn" feathers among the red, the former looking spotty and pale. On the back the new chestnut and black feathers are rapidly replacing the faded autumn feathers. Some perfectly healthy cocks still look as if in "autumn plumage," while others, on the contrary, have nearly completed their winter dress. The legs and feet are thickly covered with white feathers, and the nails are uniformly small, as the old claws have all been shed. Their growth, however, is extremely rapid.
In November and December the cock Grouse drops most of the remaining "autumn plumage." By the end of the latter month his moult is complete, November
and
December but on the neck and back a greater or lesser number of these autumn feathers are retained till the following summer.
The most striking characteristics of the winter plumage are the rich copper-coloured neck and throat, and, in the darker varieties which are common in the Scottish Highlands, the contrasting blackness of the upper breast and abdomen often broadly flecked with pure white tips.
Amongst the cocks there are several well-defined and easily recognised varieties, which seem to have a certain regularity of distribution geographically. These will be considered below.
It must not be forgotten that, owing to innumerable efforts, which have been more or less successfully made from time to time, to transfer Red Grouse from one part of the country to another, the distinction of local variations has become a thing of the past, and is now impossible except upon a very limited scale. The attempt, however, can be made, and the number of specimens in the Committee's collection of Red Grouse skins makes it possible to arrive at some conclusions.
