184 GENERATION. 



still had some of that thickness in her speech which all the Guinea 

 Africans I ever saw have. 



The cuckoo heing educated by [or brought up with] various birds, 

 and always having the same voice, is a proof that the young do not 

 take their sounds or voice from the parents. 



OBSERVATIONS ON GENERATION. 

 On the distinctive Characters of the Sexes. 



All the most perfect a nim als are of two sexes, male and female. The 

 chief distinction between the two is in the parts of generation : but, 

 besides this true and certain one, there is [an outward] character peculiar 

 to each. The male may be always distinguished from the female by 

 his noble, masculine, and beautiful figure. This holds good in all 

 animals, but in fowls it is most remarkable 1 . This difference depends 

 on the effects that the ovaria and testicles have upon the constitution, 

 which is not till a time of life when they become useful ; so that both 

 sexes are alike at an early period of life, some time before puberty 

 [excepting simply having different parts of generation] ; but about the 

 time that they both are fit, or rather becoming fit, a change in disposi- 

 tion takes place both in make and in beauty ; but this is most remark- 

 able in the male. He, as it were, leaves the female state and undergoes 

 a kind of change or metamorphosis like the moth, the female remaining 

 more stationary ; however, the female is not quite so, for she acquires 

 properties peculiar to herself. These properties in the female, although 

 they would appear to differ or rather appear opposite to those of the 

 male, yet, in another point of view, they will be found to have a certain 

 similarity, and which similarity is only known by bringing the male 

 and female under the same condition ; this is by castrating the one, and 

 spaying the other. In either case the operation produces a [kind of] 

 third animal, different from either male or female, and of course 

 different from what the castrate would have been if it had been allowed 

 to undergo the natural changes arising from the retention of the natural 

 parts. This 'third animal' is more like the female than the male, 

 because the male undergoes a greater change than the female does. 

 The female in her changes follows the male in a small degree ; which 

 change gives the difference between this ' third animal' and the female. 



To put this in a simple point of view, we may observe that at 

 one time of life, the male, the female, and the neuter, are all three 



[ 1 The diurnal Aceipitres, or Birds of Prey, form an exception to this rule ; the 

 female being the larger and ' nobler* bird.] 



