468 CAUSES OF VARIETIES IN BIRDS. 



modifications are endless; and not only do they in time become to the full as 

 frequent as the normal state, hut in the course of successive generations it in 

 many cases actually becomes impossible to ascertain which is the natural plumage 

 of the bird. In most instances some of the descendents of domesticated breeds 

 retain nearly their original aspect, but they are always larger, and of a heavier 

 and duller appearance. As regards size, and quality of flesh, the domesticated 

 breeds have a decided superiority, and the quality of the latter may be greatly 

 modified by food, &c. But it is in plumage that the change is first noticed. 

 Normally-coloured Ducks, Pintados, and Fowls, for example, often produce milk- 

 white offspring in the second and third generation, if the parents have been reared 

 in captivity ; and similar departures from the natural state are not slow to appear 

 in the descendents of wild-caught birds. 



To these general rules exceptions will occasionally occur. Thus we have seen 

 a white variety of the Coalhood (or " Bullfinch"), of the "Whin Linnet, the 

 Golden-crested Kinglet, the Common Snipe, the Corn Bunting, and other per- 

 fectly wild birds. But " the exception," in a certain sense, " proves the rule." 



If, however, modifications of size and shape are more tardy of appearance, 

 they are at least as interesting to the reflecting naturalist as those of plumage, 

 and infinitely more perplexing. Who can question this after endeavouring to 

 ascertain the original stock of the Horse, the Dog, and the Cat amongst the 

 Mammalia, and of the Bantam, game, dunghill, Polish, French, Malay, and an 

 infinity of other Fowls among birds ? It is not mere colour that forms the 

 puzzle. Were this the case, the difficulty would at once vanish. But the 

 singular discrepancies of size, and the still more extraordinary modifications of 

 general shape and other characters, seem to defy science. And yet these very 

 varieties — so called because we cannot find their analogues in the woods and 

 wilds — would unquestionably, and very justly, be considered distinct species if 

 found in a state of Nature. That these varieties, despite their natural and 

 artificial intermixture, should still remain distinct — that the offspring of half- 

 Bantams and Bantams, for instance, instead of forming new varieties, should, in 

 the end revert to the true Bantam type, is singular. But it would have been 

 passing strange, had these really been distinct races, that no notice should have 

 been taken of them by the diligent naturalists of a former day. We can only 

 gain intelligence of one species in the country from whence all our Fowls 

 originally came ; and therefore, though the point can scarcely be considered as 

 proved, it is the smaller of two difficulties to refer all the modifications of Fowls 

 to a common stock. 



One of the most remarkable varieties — and one not commonly observed in a 

 marked degree — is the assumption by the female of male attire, aspect, and 

 habits. Hens occasionally make a faint attempt at crowing — a circumstance 



