THE PRINCIPLES OF 
Past II.. 
2M 
ter/ 0 both sexes of which change colour after moulting 
twice or thrice, as does likewise the Almond Tumbler ; 
nevertheless these changes, though occurring rather 
late in life, are common to both sexes. One variety 
of the Canary-bird, namely the London Prize, offers a 
nearly analogous case. 
With the breeds of the Fowl the inheritance of various 
characters by one sex or by both sexes, seems generally 
determined by the period at which such characters are 
developed. Thus in all the many breeds in which the 
adult male differs greatly in colour from the female and 
from the adult male parent-species, he differs from the 
young male, so that the newly acquired characters must 
have appeared at a rather late period of life. On the 
other hand with most of the breeds in which the two sexes 
resemble each other, the young are coloured in nearly 
the same manner as their parents, and this renders it 
probable that their colours first appeared early in life.. 
We have instances of this fact in all black and white 
breeds, in which the young and old of both sexes are 
alike ; nor can it be maintained that there is something 
peculiar in a black or white plumage, leading to its 
transference to both sexes ; for the males alone of many 
natural species are either black or white, the females 
being very differently coloured. With the so-called 
Cuckoo sub-breeds of the fowl, in w T hich the feathers are 
transversely pencilled with dark stripes, both sexes and 
the chickens are coloured in nearly the same manner. 
The laced plumage of the Sebright bantam is the same 
in both sexes, and in the chickens the feathers are tipped 
with black, which makes a near approach to lacing. 
Spangled Hamburghs, however, offer a partial exception. 
30 4 Das Ganze der Taubenzucht,’ 1837, s. 21, 24. For the case of 
the streaked pigeons, see Dr. Cliapuis, ‘Le Pigeon Voyageur Beige/ 
1805, p. 87. 
