Chap. XIV. AT CORRESPONDING PERIODS. 77 



birth. 29 In the extraordinary hairy family described by Mr. Crawfurd/ 

 children were produced during three generations with hairy ears ; in the 

 father the hair began to grow over his body at six years old; in his 

 daughter somewhat earlier, namely, at one year ; and in both generations 

 the milk teeth appeared late in life, the permanent teeth being afterwards 

 singularly deficient. Greyness of hair at an unusually early age has been 

 transmitted in some families. These cases border on diseases inherited 

 at corresponding periods of life, to which I shall immediately refer. 



It is a well-known peculiarity with almond-tumbler pigeons, that the 

 full beauty and peculiar character of the plumage does not appear until 

 the bird has moulted two or three times. Neumeister describes and 

 figures a breed of pigeons in which the whole body is white except the 

 breast, neck, and head ; but before the first moult all the white feathers 

 acquire coloured edges. Another breed is more remarkable : its first 

 plumage is black, with rusty-red wing-bars and a crescent-shaped 

 mark on the breast; these marks then become white, and remain so 

 during three or four moults; but after this period the white spreads 

 over the body, and the bird loses its beauty. 31 Prize canary-birds have 

 their wings and tail black : " this colour, however, is only retained until 

 " the first moult, so that they must be exhibited ere the change takes place. 

 " Once moulted, the peculiarity has ceased. Of course all the birds emanating 

 " from this stock have black wings and tails the first year." 82 A curious 

 and somewhat analogous account has been given 33 of a family of wild pied 

 rooks which were first observed in 1798, near Chalfont, and which every 

 year from that date up to the period of the published notice, viz. 1837, 

 "have several of their brood, particoloured, black and white. This 

 " variegation of the plumage, however, disappears with the first moult ; 

 " but among the next young families there are always a few pied ones." 

 These changes of plumage, which appear and are inherited at various 

 corresponding periods of life in the pigeon, canary-bird, and rook, are 

 remarkable, because the parent-species undergo no such change. 



Inherited diseases afford evidence in some respects of less value than the 

 foregoing cases, because diseases are not necessarily connected with any 

 change in structure; but in other respects of more value, because the 

 periods have been more carefully observed. Certain diseases are com- 

 municated to the child apparently by a process like inoculation, and the 

 child is from the first affected; such cases may be here passed over. Large 

 classes of diseases usually appear at certain ages, such as St. Vitus's dance 

 in youth, consumption in early mid-life, gout later, and apoplexy still 

 later; and these are naturally inherited at the same period. But even 

 m diseases of this class, instances have been recorded, as with St. Yitus's 



29 Prichard.'Phys.Hist.of Mankind,' ^ ' Das Ganze der Taubenzucht,' 1837, 

 1851, vol .i. p. 349. s< 21; tak t fi 4 g _ 24j tab< iV) 



30 ' Embassy to the Court of Ava/ fio\ 2. 



vol. i. p. 320. The third generation is °v Kidd's < Treatise on the Canary,' 



described by Capt. Yule in his ' Narra- p. 18 



tivetf the Mission to the Court of Aya/ ' 33 Oharlesworth, ' Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' 



1855, p. 94. vol# i lg37j p 167> 



