22 
to be accorded to it hereafter. What the webbed feet and swimming- 
capabilities are to the immature birds above mentioned, the organs 
of flight are to the chick of the Gelinotte or Hazel-Hen, which, 
within a day of its exit from the shell, is endowed with such a deve- 
lopment of its primaries and secondaries, that it can fly from branch 
to branch, or dart after its parents through the wood, with an ease 
and rapidity equal to that of any other little bird. At this early 
stage the Gelinotte appears all wings, and, from the down which alone 
covers its body, presents somewhat the appearance of a gigantic 
moth. The young of the Heron exhibit a very low degree of per- 
fection ; but those of the Crane, the Bustard, and the Plover are agile 
on exclusion. The colouring of the downy stage of young birds is, 
in many instances, very beautiful, and fantastic indeed in form— 
exhibiting itself in stripings amongst the Grebes, yellow moss-like 
marblings amongst the true Plovers, paintings on the face of the 
Coot, and tortoiseshell blotches on the Black-headed Gull, This 
peculiar phase in bird-life exists but for a short period—six or 
eight days; a change then takes place, in the course of which the 
downy dress, with all its pretty markings, is thrown or, rather, 
pushed off by a succession of real feathers. In the Starling, among 
the Insessorial birds, it is exchanged for a uniform coat of brown, 
which, before the summer is over, is again transformed into a 
spangled dress of great beauty, In the Golden Plover the moss-like 
marbling is exchanged for a yellow speckled plumage; the Grebe 
loses its dorsal stripes, and assumes a silken white breast ; the young 
Coot, deprived of its painted face, soon presents an approach to the 
colouring of its parent; the grey middle dress of the young Heron 
gradually merges into that of the adult; and the newly hatched 
Falcons, which are blind, white-down-covered, sprawling creatures, 
pass through a variety of changes between their birth and the com- 
mencement of the second year of their existence, when they attain 
their perfect adult plumage, never again to be altered. Changes 
of a similar description also occur among the Owls. Many, if not 
most, birds, in fact, undergo a succession of alterations in their 
costume between birth and maturity ; but as there is no rule without 
an exception, so there are some birds which are not subject to any 
great change of this kind: for instance, the Kingfisher from the first 
is nearly as fine in colour as when adult, as are also the Roller, the 
Waxen Chatterer, the Tree-creeper, and the Nuthatch. 
Tn the foregoing passages | have described some of the remarkable 
changes which birds undergo between youth and maturity; but 
however interesting and curious may be the details of their infantine 
states, their progress through middle life is not less so—while the 
culminating point, so far as costume is concerned, has not yet 
been reached ; for, wonderful as are the phases through which they 
have progressed, these are as nothing compared with the assumption 
of the richer dress and colouring that obtains at the pairing-season. 
The transformations that take place in the Ployers and many other 
species at this period are indeed most remarkable, and, I believe, little 
