The Body of a Bird eeare 
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. (TI. H. Jackson, photographer.) 
In many cases the colouring of the downy young is 
the opposite of the adult, as in the Turkey Vulture, the 
nestling being 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 
