Presidential Address. 37 



iThe foregoing description does not, of course, cover the whole 

 class of Aves; but I believe it describes the general idea of bird 

 'life in spring and summer, and it is certainly true as regards the 

 majority of birds. Before proceeding further, I must mention 

 that under certain conditions, I might almost say deformities, 

 the assumption of the plumage of the opposite sex is known to 

 occur, cases where the male is found assuming the plumage of 

 the female being far more uncommon than those in which the 

 female has assumed that of the male. " Female birds, when de- 

 prived by age or other causes of the opportunity of expending their 

 superfluous vitality in egg-production, are said to sing well."^ Of 

 the Little Egret, famous for the plumes which a barbarous fashion 

 deems an adornment to our women folk, Mr J. H. Gurney says 

 f the plumes are sometimes as much developed in the females 

 as in the males. "■^ But these are only examples of what have 

 been considered and treated as aberrations from the normal 

 icourse of nature, and are only mentioned here to show how gene- 

 irally the rule is applicable, that the male is superior to the 

 female. I would here draw attention to a most excellent paper 

 on hermaphoditism in the domestic fowl, by Messrs Shattork 

 (and Seligman,9 which has been described by one who has closely 

 'Studied this subject, as an "epoch-making treatise." But, as I 

 ;have stated, it is not my object to discuss such cases in this 

 paper. I only here mention the Cuculidaj family, so that it 

 may not be thought that I had forgotten it. The nesting habits 

 of our Cuckoo are well known, how the eggs are deposited in nests 

 of foster parents, and how neither parent takes part in the incuba- 

 tion of its eggs, or the rearing of its progeny. Certain members 

 of the family, however, do not shirk parental responsibilities ; and 

 m one (Cuculus ani) found " throughout the Antilles and on the 

 opposite continent : . . several families unite to lav their 

 eggs in one nest.''^ When we examine the families ot Strigida; 

 (Owls) and Falconidx' (Falcons), we are at once struck with the 

 superiority in size of the female over the male. Selecting a few 

 'examples, we find Howard Saunders gives^ the length of the male 

 Sparrow Hawk 13 ins., wing 7.75 ins.; female 15.4 ins., wing 9 

 ins. ; male Peregrine 15 ins., wing 12.5 ins. ; female 18 ins., whig 



14 ins.; male Snowy Owl 22 ins., wing 15.5 ins.; female 25 

 ins., wing 17.5 ins. Mr J. T. Cunningham suggests "the fact 



15 probably due to greater activity on the part of the female in 



