MASCULINE FEMININES 



THE difference between " maleness " and " female- 

 ness " is a subject on which the biologists have 

 long been beating their brains, and the literature of 

 it would almost make a library by itself ; but 

 in these days it is open knowledge that the female 

 may develop a good deal of the male. To the 

 naturalist this potency is no new thing. I had the 

 pleasure of examining this week a hen capercaillie 

 shot in Forfarshire which exhibited the almost 

 complete plumage of the cock. But for its smaller 

 size it would have passed for a cock, and only a 

 sportsman quite familiar with the species would 

 have noticed that his quarry was a hen. 



This power of 'the female to develop the 

 secondary male attributes, though usually rare 

 enough to excite interest and surprise, is as wide- 

 spread as sex dimorphism itself. That is to say, 

 in all species in which the sexes are markedly 

 different, individual females have been found which 

 have assumed the marks of the male. In the days 

 before scientific poultry-raising had been heard of, 

 the phenomenon was common enough in the farm- 

 yard to form the basis of a proverb. The henwife 

 cherished some particular hen for a real or 

 imaginary grace of character, and it escaped the 



