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The Descent of Man

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discover, <strong>of</strong> species with the females dull and<br />

the young bright coloured. A partial exception,<br />

however, is <strong>of</strong>fered by the young <strong>of</strong> certain<br />

woodpeckers, for they have "the whole upper<br />

part <strong>of</strong> the head tinged with red," which afterwards<br />

either decreases into a mere circular red<br />

line in the adults <strong>of</strong> both sexes, or quite disappears<br />

in the adult females. (12. Audubon, 'Ornith.<br />

Biography,' vol. i. p. 193. Macgillivray,<br />

'History <strong>of</strong> British Birds,' vol. iii. p. 85. See also<br />

the case before given <strong>of</strong> Indopicus carlotta.)<br />

Finally, with respect to our present class <strong>of</strong> cases,<br />

the most probable view appears to be that<br />

successive variations in brightness or in other<br />

ornamental characters, occurring in the males<br />

at a rather late period <strong>of</strong> life have alone been<br />

preserved; and that most or all <strong>of</strong> these variations,<br />

owing to the late period <strong>of</strong> life at which<br />

they appeared, have been from the first transmitted<br />

only to the adult male <strong>of</strong>fspring. Any<br />

variations in brightness occurring in the fema-

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