RETROSPECT. 351 



were extended, prevented me from mentioning a variety of minor par- 

 ticulars connected with these birds, which would, I conceive, be interest- 

 ing to many persons who are desirous of becoming intimately acquainted 

 with the Natural History of the British islands. I will not, however, 

 at present, enter much into detail on this subject, but will confine 

 myself here to a few observations which might, perhaps, have been as 

 well inserted in the paper to which I have referred. 



A gentleman, on the accuracy of whose observation I can depend, 

 informs me, that he observed last April, a female blackcap (Ficedula 

 atricapilla) , singing with as much energy as the male bird; that he 

 several times distinctly saw its rust-coloured head, and heard it more 

 than once burst forth into the well-known loud song of its species. 

 What was particularly remarkable, this individual had commenced 

 nidijlcalion in the bush upon which it was seen to sing. 



That various female quadrupeds and birds, when past a certain age, 

 acquire much of the outward appearance, and many of the habits 

 of the male, is a fact that has been long familiarly known to naturalists. 



I have, myself, seen two or three instances wherein the common hen, 

 when past the age for laying, has assumed the pendent tail and gaudy 

 plumage of the cock, and has even crowed aloud, and strutted about 

 the yard with the same jealous-looking and haughty demeanour. Such 

 birds I have more than once seen in the London markets, for sale, 

 where they are known by the somewhat anomalous name, hen-cocks ; 

 the small comb and wattles still giving a feminine appearance to the 

 head. The hen pheasant and the pea-hen have often been known to 

 undergo a similar change, and I have seen the skin of an old female 

 blue breast (Pandicilla ? Suecica), in which the patch of blue feathers 

 on the breast was considerably larger than what is usual in the females 

 of that bird. We need not, indeed, look beyond our own species for 

 ample illustration of this curious tendency in nature. When old age 

 has arrived, and the powers of reproduction have ceased, do not the 

 breasts often flatten, the pelvis contract, signs of a beard begin to appear 

 on the chin and upper lip, &c. ? Does not, in short, the whole general 

 structure of the body assimilate strikingly to the male ? This tendency 

 in old age, indeed, must be familiarly known to everybody who ever 

 observes at all the various natural phenomena, which are constantly 

 presented to our notice : but the above-mentioned instance of the female 

 black-cap, singing, cannot be attributed to old age, for the individual 

 was ascertained to have a nest : indeed, age would probably have 



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