THE EMANCIPATED HEN 341 



pair of American White Pelicans had assumed the 

 young plumage in the shape of brown markings on 

 the wing-coverts. 



The occasional assumption of male plumage by 

 hen birds has generally been observed in birds in 

 captivity, being most common in the Golden 

 Pheasant ; it is of interest that only the plumage 

 changes, not the eye-colour. In the common Fowl 

 the hen, though she may get spurs even when young, 

 never develops the cock's large comb and wattles 

 even when she becomes fully cock-feathered. 



Overgrowth of claws and beak is very rare except 

 in captive birds in fact, I do not know any case 

 of overgrowth of claws in a wild bird ; such an 

 accident, if it occurred, would so soon lead to a 

 fatal entanglement or handicap in activity. In 

 tame birds it is certainly not due to absence of 

 friction in the case of the claws, for these will 

 overgrow in Ducks, which do not normally frequent 

 hard ground, and in cage-birds the claws will 

 grow sideways away from the perch; so it seems 

 to be merely a pathological over-secretion of horn, 

 and may be compared to the similar overgrowth 

 which takes place in the rudimentary back hoofs of 

 many mammals in captivity. 



The reproduction of lost parts seems not to occur 

 in birds, at any rate as a rule ; thus, a claw torn 

 off is not replaced, as all bird-fanciers know. I 

 have, however, come across one exception to this 

 in the case of a specimen of Pel's Fish-Owl (Scoto- 

 felia fell) which lived for years at the Zoo. One 



