173 
our power to procure recent specimens, 
duplicate plates will be given in these 
changes of Plumage, and we trust that the 
Histories and Portraits given in this portion 
of our work, will be found as ample, and 
correct as the present improved state of 
Ornithology will admit of, but we cannot 
help expressing our doubts that much 
still remains to be elucidated. 
The different sexes of birds may (parti- 
cularly during the Spring) be discovered 
by a careful examination of their internal 
structure. The organs peculiar to the 
male sex, consists of two glandular bodies 
placed just below the lungs, close to the 
back bone, and those of the female may 
be discovered by the ovaries, or clusters of 
eggs situated near the same place. But at 
certain seasons, these internal distinctions 
are so nearly obliterated, as to deceive a 
very good comparative anatomist and 
much more so any person but slightly vers- 
ed in such matters. Even admitting that 
it were at all times possible to ascertain 
the different sexes, yet we could not there- 
by discriminate the species, Br. Latham in 
