ALTERATION IN THE PLUMAGE OF BIRDS. XXV, 



the abstraction of the organs of generation. Tiie conclusion drawn 

 by Mr. Yarrel is that age is not necessary to this peculiar 

 appearance of the female; and that both male and female be- 

 copie, as it were, a neuter gender, by the deprivation of the 

 sexual organs, and that both assume characters decidedly in- 

 termediate between tiie two sexes. The change, however, in 

 the colour of the feathers of birds is not produced by this na- 

 tural or artificial disease only : for the plumage of some birds 

 is considerably heightened as the sexual organs dilate in the 

 spring ; in the decline of summer the plumage loses again its 

 brilliancy, returning to shades of grey and white for defence 

 during the winter ; at which time also the sexual organs become 

 contracted and the voic^ subsides. 



Page 62, line 13, for tail read rail. 



Pages 64 and 250. Aluuda arvensis, or Sky-Lark. Notwith- 

 standing what is stated concerning the song of the female lark, a 

 bird-catcher in the neighbourhood of London assures me that the 

 female larks do not sing ; that it is the constant practice of the 

 bird-catchers to kill them when caught. That the young males 

 if taken at once from the nest and bred up in confinement have 

 not so beautiful a note as those caught in nets in the autuniir : 

 a proof here that nature is the best teacher. 



Page 67, line 9, for similiarly read similarly. — 81, line 14 from 

 the bottom, for their moss read its moss. 



Pages 90, 91, 92, and 93, for Andrew Wilson read Alex- 

 ander Wilson. 



Page 96, line 3, for Axilla read Axillce. — ll7, line 10 from the 

 bottom, for prevails read prevail. 



Page 124. Of the Swan, (Cygnus Olor,) I find the following 

 notice in the Universal Magazine for 1749, vol. v. page 58, in an 

 account of Abbolsbury, Dorset. * The royalty of this town is in 

 the family of the Homers, who have a Swannery here containing 

 from 7 to 8000 swans." 



It should have been stated, in page 130, that, although in some 

 districts of the kingdom the Wild Duck is called a Mallard, the 



