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The Descent of Man

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with some proper to the female; and this apparently<br />

is the case with the male <strong>of</strong> a not distantly-allied<br />

bird, namely the Merganser serrator,<br />

for the males are said to "undergo a change <strong>of</strong><br />

plumage, which assimilates them in some measure<br />

to the female." By a little further acceleration<br />

in the process, the double moult would be<br />

completely lost. (83. See Macgillivray, 'Hist.<br />

British Birds' (vol. v. pp. 34, 70, and 223), on the<br />

moulting <strong>of</strong> the Anatidae, with quotations from<br />

Waterton and Montagu. Also Yarrell, 'History<br />

<strong>of</strong> British Birds,' vol. iii. p. 243.)<br />

Some male birds, as before stated, become more<br />

brightly coloured in the spring, not by a vernal<br />

moult, but either by an actual change <strong>of</strong> colour<br />

in the feathers, or by their obscurely-coloured<br />

deciduary margins being shed. Changes <strong>of</strong> colour<br />

thus caused may last for a longer or shorter<br />

time. In the Pelecanus onocrotalus a beautiful<br />

rosy tint, with lemon-coloured marks on the<br />

breast, overspreads the whole plumage in the

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