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The Descent of Man

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plumage? If we could admit that this plumage<br />

serves in all cases as a protection, its acquirement<br />

would be a simple affair; but there seems<br />

no good reason for this admission. It may be<br />

suggested that the widely different conditions<br />

<strong>of</strong> life during the winter and summer have acted<br />

in a direct manner on the plumage; this<br />

may have had some effect, but I have not much<br />

confidence in so great a difference as we sometimes<br />

see between the two plumages, having<br />

been thus caused. A more probable explanation<br />

is, that an ancient style <strong>of</strong> plumage, partially<br />

modified through the transference <strong>of</strong> some characters<br />

from the summer plumage, has been<br />

retained by the adults during the winter. Finally,<br />

all the cases in our present class apparently<br />

depend on characters acquired by the adult<br />

males, having been variously limited in their<br />

transmission according to age, season, and sex;<br />

but it would not be worth while to attempt to<br />

follow out these complex relations.

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