The Body of a Bird 317 



thickly spotted. This gives a clue to the coloration of its 

 ancestors, — birds probably resembling our Wood Thrush, 

 and lacking the rufous, immaculate breast of the parents. 

 We find a similar condition existing among many deer, 

 whose young are spotted, entirely unlike the brown coats 

 of their parents. 



Fig. 254. — Nestling Turkey Vulture. (T. H. Jackson, photographer.) 



In many cases the colouring of the down}^ young is 

 the opposite of the adult, as in the Turkey Vulture, the 

 nestling bemg clad in down of purest white, and ultimately 

 moulting into the blackish plumage of the parent birds. 



It would be out of place in this volume to speak further 

 of the wonderful colours which the Class of birds, as a 



