COLOUR AXD NIDIFICATION. 
179 
Ap, 
XV. 
species, when sufficiently mature to breed, differ 
’ably in plumage from the adult males ; but 
al Hed 
c °Usid 
^ e . 1 ' ^ le second or third moults they differ only in 
div' 1 ' ^ ea ^ s having a slight greenish tinge. In the 
„ bitterns (Ardetta), according to the same au- 
“the male acquires his final livery at the 
' first 
moult, the female not before the third or fourth 
a ; in the meanwhile she presents an iuter- 
i, )e diate garb, which is ultimately exchanged for the 
f livery as that of the male.” So again the 
le Falco peregrinm acquires her blue plumage 
te slowly than the male. Mr. Swinhoe states that 
Mth 
0lle of the Drongo shrikes (Dicrurus maerocercus ) 
moults his soft 
the v, 
l male whilst almost a nestling. 
g,, | plumage and becomes of a uniform glossy 
ilih llls ^"black ; but the female retains for a longtime 
%d V '^ e s f n8e and spots on the axillary feathers; 
o 0 | not completely assume the uniform black 
e^ 01 ’ 1 ’ °f the male for the first three years. The same 
Se c en ^ observer remarks that in the spring of the 
Jll( l year the female spoonbill (Platalea) of China re- 
fes the male of the first year, and that apparently 
u °t until the third spring that she acquires the 
a dult plumage as that possessed by the male at a 
as 
djjjf' 1 ea, her age. The female Bombycilla caroUnensis 
Hi ' s Vei 'y little from the male, but the appendages, 
W hke beads of red sealing-wax ornament the wing- 
rer s _ 
•i] 
flip 7 J1 " 8> are not developed in her so early in life as in 
The upper mandible in the male of an Indian 
e at p fi:ee f ( Palseornis Javanicus ) is coral-red from his 
youth, but in the female, as Mr. Blyth has 
cl lest 
°oser v j . - ^ 
j <;c with, caged and wild birds, it is at first black 
ol t , a °° s not become red until the bird is at least a year 
C s ’ ' v hich age the sexes resemble each other in all 
' s - Both sexes of the wild turkey are ultimately 
x 2 
