270 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



by the period at wliicli such cliamcters are developed. Thus 

 in all the many breeds in which the adult male differs 

 greatly in color from the female, as well as from tlie wild 

 parent-species, he differs also from the young male, so that 

 the newly-acquired characters must have appeared {it a 

 rather late period of life. On tlie other hand, in most of 

 the breeds in which the two sexes resemble each other, the 

 young are colored in nearly tlie same manner as their 

 parents, and this renders it probable that their colors first 

 ap})eared 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 

 soinetliing 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 

 feiaales being differently colored. With the so-called 

 Cuckoo sub-breeds of the fowl in which the feathers are 

 transversely penciled with dark stripes, both sexes and the 

 chickens are colored in nearly the same manner. The 

 lacod plumage of the Sebright bantam is the same in both 

 sexes, and in the young chickens the wing-feathers are dis- 

 tinctly, though imperfectly, laced. Spangled Ilamburgs, 

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

 though not quite alike, resemble each other more closely 

 than do the sexes of the aboriginal parent-species; yet they 

 acquire their characteristic plumage late in life, for the 

 chickens are distinctly penciled. With respect to other 

 characters besides color, in the wild-parent species and in 

 most of the domestic breeds the males alone possess a well- 

 leveloped comb; but in the young of the Spanish fowl it 

 is largely developed at a very early age, and, in accordance 

 with this early development in the male, it is of unusual 

 size in the adult female. In the game breeds pugnacity is 

 developed at a wonderfully early age, of which curious 

 proofs could be given; and this character is transmitted to 

 both sexes, so that the hens, from their extreme pugnacity, 

 are now generally exhibited in separate pens. With the 

 Polish breeds the bony protuberance of the skull which 

 supports the crest is partially developed even before the 

 chickens are hatched, and the crest itself soon begins to 

 grow, though at first feebly;* and in this breed the adults 



*For full particulars and references on all these points respecting- 

 the severa. breeds of the fowl, see " Variation of Animals and Plants 



