132 
THE NATURALIST’S GUIDE. 
observation, I have seen but three in the red plumage. 
On the other hand, among more mature birds, I have, 
out of perhaps forty specimens personally examined, found 
but four or five in the gray ! Mr. Allen informs me that 
although such formerly was his experience, latterly he has 
met with many more gray than red birds. By these evi- 
dences I have become fully convinced that in the earlier 
stages — perhaps to the third year — the coloration of 
the plumage of Scops asio is exceedingly variable as a 
species and somewhat individually, but in this last re- 
spect it is more constant. The only doubt that now re- 
mains is. Do birds of a certain age or period all assume 
some particular plumage as a final one 1 I am now inclined 
to think they do. Perhaps the final stage is gray ; but 
this, as I said before, yet remains to be proven. It seems 
to be an imperative law of nature for birds, — no matter 
how variable and inconstant their plumages in earlier 
stages may have been, — at some age or period to as- 
sume a final one, with the specific characters variable in 
a comparatively small degree, as heretofore pointed out. 
This inconstancy of plumage is also illustrated in the 
young of the Cedar-Bird {Ampelis cedrorum ) ; mature speci- 
mens of this species always have the peculiar, sealing-wax- 
like, horny expansions of the shaft of the feathers on the 
tips of the secondaries, and sometimes on the tips of the 
tail-feathers. In the younger stages many are destitute 
of them. I have, however, detected it upon the second- 
aries, and even upon the tails, of birds in the nesting plu- 
mage. 
With these facts to guide us, we can but adopt the 
above hypothesis relative to the final assumption of some 
particular plumage by Scops asio, until it has been proven 
that this is an exception to the governing and heretofore 
unchanging law of nature. 
This bird sees as well in the daytime as in the night. 
