23S The Descent of Man. Part II. 



streaked with black, and the streaks can be detected even in the 

 nestlings ; but they become more conspicuous at each successive 

 moult, so that this case partly opposes and partly supports the 

 rule. With the English Carrier and Pouter pigeons, the full 

 development of the wattle and the crop occurs rather late in life, 

 and conformably with the rule, these characters are transmitted 

 in full perfection to the males alone. The following cases perhaps 

 come within the class previously alluded to, in which both sexes 

 have varied in the same manner at a rather late period of life, 

 and have consequently transferred their new characters to both 

 sexes at a corresponding late period ; and if so, these cases are 

 not opposed to our rule : — there exist sub-breeds of the pigeon, 

 described by Neumeister, 46 in which both sexes change their 

 colour during two or three moults (as is likewise the case with 

 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 charac- 

 ters by one or 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, as well as from the wild parent-species, he 

 differs also from the young male, so that the newly-acquired 

 characters must have appeared at a rather late period of life. 

 On the other hand, in 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, which leads to 

 its transference to both sexes ; for the males alone of many 

 natural species are either black or white, the females being 

 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 young chickens the wing- 

 feathers are distinctly, though imperfectly laced. Spangled 

 Hamburgs, however, offer a partial exception ; for the two sexes, 

 though not quite alike, resemble each other more closely than 



46 ' Das Ganze der Taubenzucht,' puis, ' Le pigeon vovageur Beige, 

 J 837, s. 21, 24. For the case of 1865, p. 87. 

 ;he streaked pigeons, see Dr. Cha- 



