. Britain's birds and their nests . with the sex ofthe birds. The male has no distinct spring plumage,but has distinct autumn and winter plumages, and retainsthe latter throughout the breeding season. The femalehas a distinct spring plumage, which is complete by theend of April or the beginning of May, also a distinctautumn plumage, which is retained till the following put it more concisely, both male and female have twodistinct moults during the year; but in the male they occirrin autumn and winter, and in the female in spring andautumn, the former having no distinct spring and thel
. Britain's birds and their nests . with the sex ofthe birds. The male has no distinct spring plumage,but has distinct autumn and winter plumages, and retainsthe latter throughout the breeding season. The femalehas a distinct spring plumage, which is complete by theend of April or the beginning of May, also a distinctautumn plumage, which is retained till the following put it more concisely, both male and female have twodistinct moults during the year; but in the male they occirrin autumn and winter, and in the female in spring andautumn, the former having no distinct spring and thelatter no distinct winter plumage. A recent writer onGame-birds gives a different version of the sequences, but theabove summary is the result of the very careful and extensivelabours of our greatest authority on the group, and isconfirmed by other observers, who agree that withoutdoubt the male breeds in his winter plumage.* Owing to the special interest and importance of thespecies we have already overstepped the usual limits of a. Plate 35. FTARMIGAN—Lao-opi/s mutiis. Length, 14-5 in. ; wing, 7-75 in. [Gallina: : Tetraonidae.]N 106 BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 107 chapter, and cannot therefore discuss the question of grouse-disease, important though it be. The matter is a difficultone and by no means thoroughly cleared up. The diseasedoes much havoc, occurring in epidemics, probably aggra-vated by, if not partly due to, overcrowding of areas underthe very efficient methods of preserving. The first recordedoutbreak appears to be for 1815. The sporting side is also beyond our scope, and we needonly refer to it very briefly. An enormous economicimportance attaches to the Grouse because of the greatamount of money that changes hands through it in oneway and another. As every one knows, the shooting seasonopens on 12th August, lasting till 10th December. Theusual method of shooting nowadays is to have the birdsdriven across a long line of butts made of peats or othermaterial
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbirdsne, bookyear1910
