294 THE PEINCIPLES OF Part II. 



ter, 30 both sexes of which change colour after moulting 

 twice or thrice, as does likewise the Almond Tumbler ; 

 nevertheless these changes, though occurring rather 

 late in life, are common to both sexes. One variety 

 of the Canary-bird, namely the London Prize, offers a 

 nearly analogous case. 



With the breeds of the Fowl the inheritance of various 

 characters by one sex or by both sexes, seems generally 

 determined by the period at which such characters are 

 developed. Thus in all the many breeds in which the 

 adult male differs greatly in colour from the female and 

 from the adult male parent-species, he differs from the 

 young male, so that the newly acquired characters must 

 have appeared at a rather late period of life. On the 

 other hand with most of the breeds in which the two sexes 

 resemble each other, the young are coloured in nearly 

 the same manner as their parents, and this renders it 

 probable that their colours first appeared early in life. 

 We have instances of this fact in all black and white 

 breeds, in which the young and old of both sexes are 

 alike ; nor can it be maintained that there is something 

 peculiar in a black or white plumage, leading to its 

 transference to both sexes ; for the males alone of many 

 natural species are either black or white, the females 

 being very differently coloured. With the so-called 

 Cuckoo sub-breeds of the fowl, in which the feathers are 

 transversely pencilled with dark stripes, both sexes and 

 the chickens are coloured in nearly the same manner. 

 The laced plumage of the Sebright bantam is the same 

 in both sexes, and in the chickens the feathers are tipped 

 with black, which makes a near approach to lacing. 

 Spangled Ham burghs, however, offer a partial exception, 



30 'Das Ganze der Taubenzucht,' 1837, s. 21, 24. For the case of 

 the streaked pigeons, see Dr. Chapuis, 'Le Pigeon Voyageur Beige,' 

 1865, p. 87. 



