The Descent of Man

feathers; and does not completely assume the
uniform black colour of the male for three
years. The same excellent observer remarks that
in the spring of the second year the female
spoon- bill (Platalea) of China resembles the
male of the first year, and that apparently it is
not until the third spring that she acquires the
same adult plumage as that possessed by the
male at a much earlier age. The female Bombycilla
carolinensis differs very little from the male,
but the appendages, which like beads of red
sealing-wax ornament the wing-feathers (30.
When the male courts the female, these ornaments
are vibrated, and "are shewn off to great
advantage," on the outstretched wings: A. Leith
Adams, 'Field and Forest Rambles,' 1873, p.
153.), are not developed in her so early in life as
in the male. In the male of an Indian parrakeet
(Palaeornis javanicus) the upper mandible is
coral-red from his earliest youth, but in the female,
as Mr. Blyth has observed with caged and
wild birds, it is at first black and does not be-