XXVlll 
INTRODUCTION. 
scarcely believe them to be of the same race. Thus the young Cuckoo 
resembles the Hawk in its plumage, more than its progenitors ; while the 
young Henharrier bears no similarity in its colouring to its male parent, 
but is clothed in a dress remarkably alike that of its mother, the Ringtail. 
The colouring of the feathers of birds is not permanent. The young 
Cuckoo, when it first spreads the wing, presents an animal of such widely 
different hues from the old one, that a person, slightly acquainted with the 
feathered race, would with difficulty attribute its origin to the proper 
source. Its plumage is then dusky, shaded with tints of brown, and 
circled at the ends with narrow bands of white, and the tail feathers 
are barred with black, brown and white. Before it departs, the same 
feathers become shaded with brown alone, leaving a few nearly round 
spots of white on the line of the shaft of the feathers of the tail. The 
well known physiological fact, that even the hen birds of some species will 
resume in old age a plumage similar to that of the male, has been exempli- 
fied, particularly in the Peahen, the common Hen, and Pheasant. When 
the young of the Flycatcher, the Redbreast, the Stonechat, the Whinchat, 
the Butcherbird, the Goldfinch, and numerous other species, quit the nest, 
they wear few marks of the colourings of their vesture in riper years. 
Some acquire, in a great degree, similar tints to those of their parents 
before the winter commences ; but most can be easily distinguished from 
them, until the following spring. 
In the year 1808, an acquaintance of mine had a Hen, the plumage of which nearly 
resembled that of the Cock •, its comb and wattles were of a monstrous size ; its spurs long and 
large, and a few of the tail-feathers were arched and bending, like those in the male ; it ceased to 
cackle, and assumed a hoarse crowing tone, and at the same time continued to lay. The Cock 
would not suffer it to approach him, without testifying the greatest rage. I went a second time to 
see it, and to request to have it to dissect ; but it unfortunately had been killed some weeks before, 
on account of its disagreeable crowing. The owner jocosely assigned a different reason. “ I 
killed it,” said he, “ because the women are masters in those houses in which Hens crow.” 
