304 Reconciliation of apparent Discrcjiancies in the Mode 



I am fully persuaded that, not at all uncommonly, a female 

 bird in masculine attire is thrown aside as a dull specimen 

 of the male, being considered as unworthy of preservation. 

 That I have myself done this, in the case of the common 

 shrike, I entertain no doubt whatever. Montagu, it will be 

 remembered, shot many specimens of the tree sparrow, in the 

 hope of procuring a hen, before it occurred to him that the 

 sexes might possibly resemble. Indeed, there are few of us 

 but have occasionally seen a female sparrow-hawk with a blue 

 back, which is readily noticed in this instance, merely because 

 of the great sexual disparity of size. Not long ago, 1 saw in 

 confinement what I considered to be a female Circus cyaneus, 

 with brown body plumage, but grey wings and tail : a young 

 male would have assumed at least some traces of grey on its 

 clothing plumage previous to its moult, and would certainly, 

 I presume, never exhibit adult primaries before it had begun 

 to change its smaller feathers. That both sexes of the peregrine 

 falcon become quite blue with age (the female, however, more 

 slowly than the male), is a fact familiar to most naturalists ; 

 and the same is noticeable in other species of Falconidae. 

 Still, it is not wished to be insinuated but that such incidents 

 are of rare occurrence in most birds, and, probably, do not 

 ever take place in some. 



In fact, it may be observed, that, in almost every large 

 group wherein the immature dress differs in some species 

 from the adult, there will be found others in which neither sex 

 advance beyond the primitive markings, although these may 

 subsequently assume a more contrasted and adult-looking 

 appearance: thus, to give a few examples, the barred mark- 

 ings characteristic of the immature dress of the green wood- 

 peckers (Chrysoptilus) are permanent in many species of the 

 allied division Colaptes ; so, likewise, the mottled upper parts 

 of various Eastern and Australian thrushes (and which also 

 occur among the mature Ianthocinclse), are analogous to 

 those of the nestling garb of our native Merulidae. In like 

 manner, some of the shrike tribe never advance beyond a 

 style of marking characteristic of only the first plumage of 

 the Lanius Coilurio; and the fixed livery of the bitterns 

 may be said to be similarly correspondent to what is cast at 

 an early age in the genera allied to them. To take the next 

 grade, other species will occur, wherein the males only present 

 a departure from the original aspect of plumage; even these 

 requiring, in some instances, more than a single moult to 

 bring about the diversity. Thus, Mr. Hoy assures me that, 

 comparatively, very few of the male orioles which he has 

 found breeding differed at all in plumage from the other sex; 



