314 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



all black and white breeds, in whicli the young and old 

 of both sexes are alike ; nor can it be maintained that there 

 is something peculiar in a black or white plumage which 

 leads to its transference to both sexes ; for the males alone 

 of many natural species are either black or white, the females 

 being differently colored. With the so-called Cuckoo sub- 

 breeds of the fowl, in which the feathers are transversely 

 pencilled with dark stripes, both sexes and the chickens are 

 colored in nearly the same manner. The laced plumage of 

 the Sebright bantam is the same in both sexes, and in the 

 young chickens the wing-feathers are distinctly, though 

 imperfectly, laced. Spangled Hamburg's, however, offer 

 a partial exception; for the two sexes, though not quite 

 alike, resemble each other more closely than do the sexes 

 of the aboriginal parent-species; yet they acquire their char- 

 acteristic plumage late in life, for the chickens are distinctly 

 pencilled. With respect to other characters besides color, in 

 the wild-parent species and in most of the domestic breeds, 

 the males alone possess a well- developed comb; but in the 

 young of the Spanish fowl it is largely developed at a very 

 early age, and, in accordance with this early development 

 in the male, it is of iinusual size in ti^'adult female. In 

 the Game breeds pugnacity is developed at a wonderfully 

 early age, of which curious proofs could be given; and this 

 character is transmitted to both sexes, so that the hens, from 

 their extreme pugnacity, are now generally exhibited in 

 separate pens. With the Polish breeds the bony protuber- 

 ance of the skull which supports the crest is partially 

 developed even before the chickens are hatched, and the 

 crest itself soon begins to grow, though at first feebly;*' 

 and in this breed the adults of both sexes are characterized 

 by a great bony protuberance and an immense crest. 



Finally, from what we have now seen of the relation 



" For full particulars and references on all these points respecting the 

 several breeds of the Fowl see "Variation of Animals and Plants under Domes- 

 tication," vol. i. pp. 250, 256. In regard to the higher animals, the sexual 

 diiierenoes which have arisen under domestication are described in the same 

 work under the head of each species. 



