PLUMAGE IN HEN-BIRDS. 195 



form a sort of supplement to that of Mr Hunter, 

 whose object ever was to illustrate truth by ration- 

 al inquiry, and to display his own information as 

 far as he thought it correct. 



Nature, no doubt, admits of occasional lusi, but I 

 believe that her changes are neither so frequent nor 

 so extraordinary as people imagine. Many persons 

 may traverse her fields without discovering any thing 

 unknown, or even the regular order and course of her 

 proceedings ; whilst patient observation will some- 

 times point out phenomena which might have escap- 

 ed general notice, but which, nevertheless, do not 

 deviate from the established laws of nature. 



Plymouth, December 1817. 



January 1820. 

 Since December 1817, when I had the honour of 

 laying before the Wernerian Natural History So- 

 ciety, some observations relating to such changes of 

 plumage as I had observed to take place in several 

 old domestic hens, I have been enabled to get a 

 drawing made of the stuffed fowl in my possession, 

 by a very ingenious young lady, residing in the 

 neighbourhood of Plymouth ; and I have had much 

 pleasure in forwarding it to the Society as a corro- 

 borative proof of the observations I once made on 

 this fowl.— See Plate XL 



N % 



