CHANGE OF PLUMAGE IN HEN-BIRDS. 188 



XI. — An account of the change of Plumage exhi- 

 bited by many Species of Female Birds, at an 

 advanced period of life ; intended as a Supple- 

 ment to Mr John Hunter's Memoir upon that 

 Subject, in the Philosophical Transactions. 



By John Butter, P. L. S. M. W. S., Member of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons in London, and Surgeon to 

 the South Devon Militia at Plymouth. 



(Read \Oth January 1818, and 15th January 18&0.J 



T^heneveb any circumstances hitherto unobserv- 

 ed, or at least not generally known, are brought 

 forward, regarding the original form and character 

 stamped upon ail animals by Nature, we are too apt 

 to bestow on them the term " monstrous." Mr Hun- 

 ter has begun his description of an extraordinary 

 Pheasant, in the paper above alluded to, which 

 has been reprinted and published in his Animal 

 Economy, in the following words ; " Every devia- 



