40 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
is now on about the matter. Whatever may be the 
case now, the impression can not but arise that the 
gradual infusion of color must have prevailed at one 
time, and that both methods may obtain together yet ; 
for we shall see that some new colors are acquired by 
the joint effect of molt and the fraying off of the 
feather tips. 
Nature now is often a great shortener of processes 
that were once doubtless tedious, and changes were 
likely hurried up here as elsewhere. In some tree- 
toads that never go near the water to hatch their 
egos, the young pass through the tadpole state while 
in the egg, and some omit it altogether—a remarkable 
hurrying-up process; and in connection with our 
present topic we have seen that some birds (brush 
turkeys) pass one molt before they are hatched, be- 
cause of the emergency of quick flight at the demands 
of the parentless condition. 
Likewise this process of coloration by molt can 
now be hurried up in such young birds as have a 
change of color. By plucking out the present feather, 
the new one grows out at once in keeping with the 
hue and pattern of the next molt, which would have 
occurred normally some months hence. Thus we 
may see a possible suggestion of the purpose of 
extra molts, and how, after this law was once es- 
tablished, some of the color changes may have come 
about. 
It takes some birds yet as many as five years to 
acquire complete adult plumage; and the various 
changes which they pass through are found to depend 
