INTEODUCTORY COLLECTIOX. 
23 
some of the feathers (coverts) have attained a length of nine 
feet, and specimens of another race kept in many parts of 
Europe in which the tail is entirely absent. There is also 
shown a group of fowls which now live in a wild state in the 
woods of the Fiji Islands, but are descendants from domestic 
fowls introduced by the early voyagers of the last century. 
Some Canary Birds are also shown in this case as one of the 
most recent additions to our stock of domesticated animals, 
having been first imported into Europe from the Canary Islands 
in the early part of the sixteenth century. Specimens are 
exhibited of the wild birds, and of some of the most striking 
modifications which have been produced by careful cultivation 
through many generations. 
A case placed on the left of this illustrates a remarkable Group of 
instance of external variation in the two sexes and at different SiusSat^' 
seasons, not under the influence of domestication. The birds in external vari- 
it all belong to one species, the Euff (Machetes pugnax)^ of which fng°to\°ex^and 
the female is called Eeeve, belonging to the Snipe family season. 
(Scolopacidce). In the upper division of the case are shown the 
eggs, newly-hatched young, young males and females in the first 
autumn plumage, and old males and females in winter, when 
both sexes are exactly alike in colour, size only distinguishing 
them. The large group occupying the lower part of the case 
consists of adult birds in the plumage they assume in the breed- 
ing time (May and June). In the female the only alteration 
from the winter state is a darker and richer coloration, but in 
the males there is a special growth of elongated feathers about 
the head and neck, constituting the " ruff," from which the bird 
derives its name. In addition to this peculiarity, another may 
be observed, which is rare among animals in a v/ild state (though 
so common among domesticated races), that of striking diversity 
of colour in different individuals. As many as twenty-three 
specimens are shown in the case, no two being entirely alike. 
On the same side of the hall follow two cases which illustrate Cases iUns- 
the adaptation of the colour of animals to their natural sur- ^^^^ptation of 
roundings, by means of which they are rendered less con- Colour to 
spicuous to their enemies or their prey. The first contains a cond^^ons!^ 
specimen of a mountain or variable Hare (the common species 
of the North of Europe), a Stoat, and a Weasel, some Willow 
