aiv, no doubt, both males, thus staitiii" in life with a fair avei-ago of 
appendages, six and seven being apparently the rule and eight 
altogether exceptional. The largo size of tlie tips, therefore, 
and the addition of the sixth on one Aving in Mr. Dresser’s 
nestling, as compared with j\fr. 'Wolley’s, seems to indicate that 
con.stitution may inthicnco tlio number in the earliest stage, and a 
vigorous young male may commence with six as a nestling and have 
but two, or at most three, more to accpiire.* Very line tips are 
also invariably accomiianied with richness of plumage, and the 
beauty of the tip.s consists as much in their lateral expansion as 
in their length ; in some ca.se.s, as before sUited, the projecting 
point of the sliaft being merely tinted, or but slightly more 
developed. Tlio same, in degree, no doubt a])plies to the 
fmnales, although instances of their acquiring more tlian six 
tips are probably rare, and dependent, as Avell, less upon a<'o 
than constitution. ° 
I’EMALEa WITH SCAIICELY A WaX-TIP VISIBLE. 
I should hero mention, hoAvevor, that though my list contains 
but one female Avith so few as iwo tips to each wing, I have noAv 
before mo a mature specimen killed in this county in November, 
18 / 2 , which is so nearly devoid of waxen appendages that it h 
only possible Avith a glass to distinguish a speck of red at the 
tips of the shafts of two secondary quills in one wiim and 
oi one in the other. Of the nine fuUy developed primad^ in 
t us singular bird, all but the two longest have a tchite patch at 
the hp ot the outer Aveb ; and in but one feather in each Aving is it 
possible to trace the fliintest indication of this white patch becominc^ 
. yelloAv. The primary coverts are, as usual, edged with white, and 
the tail-feathers conspicuously, though not deeply, margined with 
* As a bird c/ipable of breeding may be fairly termed a^lult, the advanced 
state of these nestlings, as compared with Wolley’s parent birds, in the 
matter of Ava.x-tips is, I think, tlie strongest evidence in favour of con- 
stitutional vigour, and not age, accounting for e.\treme richness of plumasre 
in this species ; tlie cause of this, doubtless, may be sought in the conditions 
under which the young are brought up-whether in seasons when food is 
Abundant, and easy of access, or the reverse. 
VOL. III. 
