Ringtail the whole continued through the winter, when the 
one which had been weakly from the first, died ; this cir- 
cumstance induced me to force a premature change in some 
of the quill and tail feathers of the others, fearing some ac- 
cident might frustrate my earnest desire of bringing the 
matter to a decisive proof; and, about the middle of J une, I 
was highly gratified by discovering an appearance of the new 
feathers in the place of those which had been plucked out ; 
that clearly evinced the smaller bird to be a Hen-Harrieii, 
and the larger a Ringtail. 
" Thus I compelled nature to disclose her secrets be* 
fore the appointed time ; for in every other respect their 
plumage was yet similar, excepting about the sides of the 
face, which were paler coloured in the former^, in which also 
the irides were of a dull yellow somewhat mottled, whereas 
in the latter they still continued dark. 
" The male had, about the twentieth of J uly, thrown out 
many of the new feathers naturally ; on the twentieth of 
August, the greater part of the quill and tail feathers were 
grown to their full length, and a gradual increase of grey 
feathers appeared on most other parts ; the eyes also be- 
came more orange : but it was not till the middle of Octo- 
ber that it had attained that state that made it desirable to 
be retained as an existing fact of the change, it was then 
killed, and is now deposited in my museum." 
From the foregoing account it clearly appears, that these 
two birds are the same species, differing only in sex ; a cir- 
