Part II. — Plumage Changes of the Hen Grouse.
The two changes of plumage in the hen Grouse are completed, as has already been explained, in the one case by the end of April or the beginning of May, and in the other case by July and August. Seasonal
changes of
plumage
The actual feather changes in both cock and hen are really very comparable in character, notwithstanding the difference as to season; and allowing for the difference of two months which makes the moult in the two sexes asynchronous, they may be described and explained in very much the same terms.
Mr Ogilvie-Grant was the first to draw attention to the exceptional want of agreement in the seasons chosen by the two sexes of the Red Grouse for their moult, and as in the cock's plumage he makes use of the Explanation of
terms. terms "autumn" and "winter-summer" or "winter" plumages, which have therefore been used here, so in speaking of the hen's plumages it will be well to adhere similarly to the expressions used by him, and to call them "summer" and "autumn-winter" or "autumn" plumages.
Exception may be taken, and indeed has been taken, to these names, as being inappropriate and inexact, but they are sufficiently exact for all practical purposes, and so long as moults and plumage changes are not completed in a week, but are spread over a period of several months, so long will there be some inexactitude in the terminology of these moults and plumages if they are named according to the months or seasons. It is immaterial so long as the term is sufficiently defined, for it is obviously impossible to use a term so exact as to require no definition.
The hen Grouse moults twice in the year, and wears her "summer plumage" as the breeding dress from April to July, and her "autumn" or "autumn to winter" plumage from August to March. These changes may be expressed in terms of comparison with the cock, as a case of plumage change in which the hen has two annual moults, exactly as has the cock, but both moults occur two months earlier in the hen than in the cock.
The hen's "summer" or breeding plumage is a very beautiful dress,
