variable to a considerable extent it is true, but yet having a general uniformity which becomes the more obvious as a greater series of skins in any particular phase of plumage is examined.
Opportunities for even seeing the hen Grouse, to say nothing of obtaining her skin, in the full breeding plumage are rare; and thus it happens Difficulty of
obtaining
specimens
of nesting
plumage. that, even in the large series of Grouse skins at South Kensington and at Cambridge, this phase is only poorly represented.
The Committee has been to some extent more fortunate, and has obtained a great many skins of hens in the summer plumage (see p. 54 and Appendix D), so that Points of resemblance can be noted at sight, and individual variations perforce take their proper places. It has been a marked feature in the whole collection of six hundred skins that as the series grew, and the general uniformity became more marked, the individual variations of which we were inclined to make much at first, became gradually relegated to their subordinate position.
Uniformity, albeit with endless minor variations, is the rule in the Grouse as it is in every other creature that leads an unprotected existence under natural conditions. How long it will continue in the protected, often over-protected. Grouse remains to be seen. It is possible that such variation as already occurs is to some extent a modern development ; but on this point there is at present insufficient evidence to amount to certainty.
Beginning once more with January, it may be said that in this month some hens, when examined on the under side, are hardly distinguishable by January. their plumage from some cocks (Pl. viii.). On the dorsum it is different, and a healthy hen in January is unmistakable owing to the terminal spots of buff which appear almost invariably, though occasionally in limited numbers, on the feathers of the back. In some healthy hens the chin is sometimes still pale buff in colour, owing to the persistence of summer-plumage feathers of the preceding year. The throat and fore-neck, on the other hand, are copper-red, but rarely so uniformly red as in the cock (Pl. xvi., Fig. 1). The copper-red feathers seem to begin on the fore-neck and proceed towards the chin, so that the chin often remains buff and black when the throat is already red. Except in very backward birds, which have been sick, the old and faded broad-barred feathers of the flanks are never found in January. The legs and feet are white and thickly feathered, and the claws are long and strong.
