The Descent of Man

hackles, comb, spurs, voice, and even pugnacity
of the cock. Conversely, the same thing is
evident, more or less plainly, with castrated
males. Again, independently of old age or disease,
characters are occasionally transferred
from the male to the female, as when, in certain
breeds of the fowl, spurs regularly appear in
the young and healthy females. But in truth
they are simply developed in the female; for in
every breed each detail in the structure of the
spur is transmitted through the female to her
male offspring. Many cases will hereafter be
given, where the female exhibits, more or less
perfectly, characters proper to the male, in
whom they must have been first developed,
and then transferred to the female. The converse
case of the first development of characters in
the female and of transference to the male, is
less frequent; it will therefore be well to give
one striking instance. With bees the pollencollecting
apparatus is used by the female alone
for gathering pollen for the larvae, yet in most