256 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE 



pot till an advanced age. One morning its mistress 

 was scandalized to hear it crow. If she spared 

 it till after its next moult she found it to assume 

 cock's feathers, and probably wattles as well. 

 Waterton gives a curious case of a hen which 

 assumed not only the plumage, voice, and spurs, 

 but also the warlike disposition of the cock, and 

 which, when opposed to an enemy, would erect 

 her hackles and show fight. The order of birds 

 to which the domestic fowl and the game birds 

 belong is rich in sexual dimorphism. In every 

 one of its species which is polygamous, and 

 that is the large majority, the cock has 

 a much more ornamental plumage than the 

 hen ; and in nearly every such case hens have 

 been found manifesting these attributes of the 

 cocks. In the case of the capercaillie, according 

 to Millais, there is one such hen in every two or 

 three hundred killed, but such frequency of occur- 

 rence as this is probably rare. It is possible, 

 however, that many cases pass unnoticed. If the 

 male and the female are about the same in size 

 it would be rather remarkable if a case were 

 detected in which the hen had developed a com- 

 plete male dress, and in most of the cases on 

 record the assumption of male plumage was short 

 enough of complete to attract attention. The 

 difference in size between the capercaillie sexes 

 makes discovery easy, and perhaps accounts for 

 the large proportion of females with male attributes 

 found. 



On somewhat similar grounds we may probably 

 account for the fact that it is this order of birds 



