18 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIEDS. 



green hue which the bird had when it left the nest. The 

 third spring brings him nearer towards perfection, as at that 

 time the deep chesnut color has taken possession of the lower 

 parts, the black has deepened on the upper parts, and over the 

 whole head, as well as on the wings and tail-feathers. Yet 

 the garb with which it is ultimately to be covered requires 

 another return of spring before it is completed, after which 

 it remains as exhibited in the adult male represented in the 

 plate. 



u These extraordinary changes are quite sufficient of them- 

 selves to lead naturalists abroad into error, as they give rise 

 to singular arguments even with some persons in America, 

 who maintain that the differences of color are indicative of 

 different species. But, since the habits of these birds under 

 all these singular changes of plumage, are ascertained to be 

 precisely the same, the argument no longer holds good'." 



Of whatever impositions upon "the sex," "the Parson" 

 may have been guilty, during the years of his various dis- 

 guises, we profess to be innocently ignorant, and are " happy 

 in our ignorance." 



But of one thing we are soberly assured : that Mr. Audu 

 bon is the first of Naturalists, (not Ornithologist, simply,) 

 who has eliminated this distinction of age, sex and color, 

 with their corresponding transitions, into anything bordering 

 upon scientific accuracy. He first thoroughly roused science 

 to the fact that it had often recognized male as female, young 

 as old, and proved that many of its genera and species might 

 come from the same nest or lair ! 



No classification can be called, scientific, or recognized as 

 worth anything, in which this point has not been most care- 

 fully guarded ; and it involves difficulties, which, in some 

 instances, the untiring zeal and watchfulness of his long life 

 has been insufficient to solve. 



What a singular ordination these alterations of plumage 

 appears ! The metamorphoses of Fashion are here clearly 

 legitimatized by nature. Our Parson, with the addition of 



