408 
CAUSES OF VARIETIES IN BIRDS. 
modifications ar£ endless; and not only do they in time become to the full as 
frequent as the normal state, but in the course of successive generations it in 
many cases actually becomes impossible to ascertain which is the natural plumage 
of the bird. In most instances some of the descendents of domesticated breeds 
retain nearly their original aspect, but they are always larger, and of a heavier 
and duller appearance. As regards size, and quality of flesh, the domesticated 
breeds have a decided superiority, and the quality of the latter may be greatly 
modified by food, &c. But it is in plumage that the change is first noticed. 
Normally-coloured Ducks, Pintados, and Fowls, for example, often produce milk- 
white offspring in the second and third generation, if the parents have been reared 
in captivity; and similar departures from the natural state are not slow to appear 
in the descendents of wild-caught birds. 
To these general rules exceptions will occasionally occur. Thus we have seen 
a white variety of the Coalhood (or “ Bullfinch”), of the Whin Linnet, the 
Golden-crested Kinglet, the Common Snipe, the Com Bunting, and other per¬ 
fectly wild birds. But “ the exception,” in a certain sense, “proves the rule.” 
If, however, modifications of size and shape are more tardy of appearance, 
they are at least as interesting to the reflecting naturalist as those of plumage, 
and infinitely more perplexing. Who can question this after endeavouring to 
ascertain the original stock of the Horse, the Dog, and the Cat amongst the 
Mammalia, and of the Bantam, game, dunghill, Polish, French, Malay, and an 
infinity of other Fowls among birds ? It is not mere colour that forms the 
puzzle. Were this the case, the difficulty would at once vanish. But the 
singular discrepancies of size, and the still more extraordinary modifications of 
general shape and other characters, seem to defy science. And yet these very 
varieties—so called because we cannot find their analogues in the woods and 
wilds—would unquestionably, and very justly, be considered distinct species if 
found in a state of Nature. That these varieties, despite their natural and 
artificial intermixture, should still remain distinct—that the offspring of half- 
Bantams and Bantams, for instance, instead of forming new varieties, should, in 
the end revert to the true Bantam type, is singular. But it would have been 
passing strange, had these really been distinct races, that no notice should have 
been taken of them by the diligent naturalists of a former day. We can only 
gain intelligence of one species in the country from whence all our Fowls 
originally came; and therefore, though the point can scarcely be considered as 
proved, it is the smaller of two difficulties to refer all the modifications of Fowls 
to a common stock. 
One of the most remarkable varieties—and one not commonly observed in a 
marked degree—is the assumption by the female of male attire, aspect, and 
habits. Hens occasionally make a faint attempt at crowing—a circumstance 
