296 Mr. Percy R. Lowe : 



young Pheasant of about the same age, with which I 

 compared it. 



We thus see that the chief and most striking features to 

 be noticed in regard to this young Guan is a combination of 

 a downy body-plumage, protectively coloured, with a far 

 more than ordinary precocious development of the flight- 

 feathers. 



In addition, there seems to be apparently displayed in this 

 one example a sort of epitome of the evolution of feather- 

 development. 



Conclusions. 

 Obviously then, the plumage of this young tree-bred 

 Guan presents characteristics which we are now accustomed 

 to associate with the precocious or nidifugous type of 

 nestling. 



But while still showing the arrested development of the 

 outermost primaries, reminiscent of an ancestral and com- 

 plete arboreal existence, the protectively-coloured down 

 plumage, combined with the accelerated development of the 

 rest of the flight-feathers, marks it as a young bird adapted 

 for a terrestrial existence in the early days of its life. 



As we all know now, this protectively-coloured down 

 must have been evolved to enable it to harmonize with its 

 surroundings on the ground ; and the advanced development 

 of the flight-feathers must likewise have been found service- 

 able in order to furnish means for the young chick, not 

 necessarily and solely to escape its many enemies in a 

 precarious environment, but also to enable it to make a 

 more effective pursuit of the many small moths and flying 

 insects which fluttered and flew among the herbage wherein 

 it passed the first days of its life. And this it could do by 

 being able to give small jumping flights into the air, even 

 if it was not actually able to fly for a few feet. 



At the present time no observations have been published 

 to enable us to say exactly how long a time elapsed from the 

 day when this chick first saw the light of day in its nest 

 among the trees to the day when its parents first conducted 

 it to the ground. 



