158 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



vary a good deal in certain families. When just hatched 

 the young of the Warblers, the Goatsuckers, the 

 Hoopoes and the Cuckoos are naked, blind and helpless 

 for some time before the first feathers and filaments 

 begin to grow. In the Pigeons the young are hatched 

 blind, but covered with thin yellow down. In the 

 Crakes, Cranes, Waders, Terns and Gulls, the young in 

 every case are hatched covered with thick down, are 

 able to see, and soon run or swim with the greatest ease 

 and confidence. In the Warblers the young as soon as 

 they are fledged do not differ very much in colour from 

 their parents, and the slight differences are lost alto- 

 gether after the following spring moult, when the fully 

 adult plumage is assumed. The young of the Goat- 

 suckers closely resemble their parents when fledged, but 

 may be readily distinguished by having the spots on 

 the quill and tail feathers smaller, and buff instead of 

 white in colour. After each succeeding moult these 

 spots gradually increase in size, and the buff almost as 

 insensibly passes into white. The first plumage of 

 Pigeons is much browner than that of the adults, most 

 of the metallic sheen on the neck and breast is wanting, 

 and in the case of the Ring Dove and the Turtle Dove 

 the white and black patches on the sides of the neck are 

 absent. After the next moult the young males resemble 

 adult females in colour. The young of the Crakes, of 

 which the Corncrake may be taken as the typical species, 



