Chap. XIV. A r COltRESPONDING PERIODS. 53 



in life, 3'et are inherited at tlie same period at which they 

 first appeared. 



In the Lan]l)ert family the porcnpine-Hke excrescences appeared 

 in the father and sons at the same age, namely, ahout nine weeks 

 after birth.^° In the extraordinary hairy family described by Mr. 

 Crawfurd,^^ children were produced during three generations with 

 hairy ears ; in the father the hair began to grow over his body at 

 six years old ; in his daughter somewhat earlier, namely, at one 

 year ; and in both generations the milk teeth appeared late in life, 

 the permanent teeth being afterwards singularly deficient. Grey- 

 ness of hair at an unusually early age has been transmitted in some 

 families. These cases border on diseases inherited at corresi3onding 

 periods of life, to which I shall immediately refer. 



It is a well known peculiarity with almond-tumbler pigeons, that 

 the full beauty and peculiar character of the plumage does not 

 appear until the bird has moulted two or three times. Neumeister 

 describes and figures a brace of pigeons in which the whole body is 

 white except the breast, neck, and head; but in their first plumage 

 all the white feathers have coloured edges. Another breed is more 

 remarkable : its first plumage is black, with rusty-red wing-bars 

 and a crescent-shaped mark on the breast ; these marks then 

 become white, and remain so during three or four moults; but after 

 this period the white spreads over the body, and the bird loses its 

 beauty.^^ Prize canary-birds have their wings and tail black : 

 " this colour, however, is only retained until the first moult, so that 

 " they must be exhibited ere the change takes place. Once 

 " moulted, the f)eculiarity has ceased. Of course all the birds 

 " emanating from this stock have black wings and tails the first 

 year."^^ A curious and somewhat analogous account has been 

 given ^ of a family of wild pied rooks which were first observed in 

 1798, near Chalfont, and which every year from that date up to the 

 period of the published notice, viz., 1837, " have several of their 

 " brood particoloured, black and white. This variegation of the 

 *' plumage, however, disappears with the first moult ; but among 

 " the next young families there are always a few pied ones." 

 These changes of plumage, w^hich are inherited at various corre- 

 sponding periods of life in the pigeon, canary-bird, and rook, are 

 remarkable, because the parent-species passes through no such 

 change. 



Inherited diseases affe^rd evidence in some respects of less value 



30 Prichard, ' Phvs. Hist, of Man- ^- 'Das Ganze der Taubenzucbt,' 



kind,' 1851, vol. i. p. 349. 1837, s. 24, tab. iv., tig. 2 ; s. 21, tab. 



3' 'Embassy to the Court of Ara,' i., fig. 4. 



vol. i. p. 320. The third generation ^^ Kidd's ' Treatise on the Canary,' 



is described by Capt. Yule in his p. 18. 



' Narrative of the Mission to the ^* Charlesworth, ' Mag. of Nat. 



Court of Ava,' 1855, p. 94. Hist.,' vol. i. 1837, p. 167. 



