214 LANTinJK. 



It will now however be within the knowledge of most 

 ornithologists that these so-called " laws " are subject to 

 numerous exceptions, while they by no means include all 

 the different cases which an extended acquaintance with the 

 feathered creation will shew. The first of them when taken 

 according to the precise terms in which it was enunciated 

 seems to have the most force, but cases occur, as in some 

 of the Woodpeckers, where the young have a plumage peculiar 

 to themselves even when that of their parents differ sexually ; 

 and we ought also to take up the converse of the proposition, 

 where we find that in the rare cases in which the female 

 possesses more lively colours than the male, the young of 

 both sexes resemble him. To the second of these " laws " 

 exceptions are more plentiful even among common British 

 birds ; for in many of the Crows and in the Kingfisher, 

 where the sexual differences of the adults are exceedingly 

 slight, the young have no plumage that can be called pecu- 

 liar to themselves. Nor are cases far to seek in which the 

 third " law " will not apply ; for in the Razor-bill and the 

 Common Guillemot, where the breeding plumage of both 

 sexes is alike and yet decidedly different from that which 

 they wear in winter, the first plumage of the young resem- 

 bles the wedding garments of their parents without possessing 

 anything of an intermediate character between the two 

 periodical states. Again there are instances in which both 

 adults and young differ according to sex, thus the male 

 Blackbird can be distinguished from the female even as a 

 nestling. All these cases have been very fully considered 

 by Mr. Darwin in his latest work, and, quite irrespective of 

 any arguments that may be founded upon them, the chapter 

 in which they are treated deserves the closest attention of 

 ornithologists.* 



Into the question of the various modes by which changes 

 in the appearance of the plumage of birds are produced it 

 is not proposed at present to enter. 



* 'The Descent of Man, and Selection in relation to Sex.' London : 1871, 

 vol. ii. chap. xvi. pp. 187-223. 



