. The Avicultural magazine. Birds; Cage birds. on ancestral characters in nestlings. 235 ^ihe character of plumage which they still retain is of far greater ^antiquity than that of birds of more specialised and striking appearance. Of course, in the first case, the male has been diffei-entiated by sexual selection, and in the second the colouring has been retained for protective purposes; whereas in the Pigeons referred to the female has inherited her colouring through her male ancestry. Now, if we admit this, would not the result of hybridising 'birds in which the sexes resembled each other w
. The Avicultural magazine. Birds; Cage birds. on ancestral characters in nestlings. 235 ^ihe character of plumage which they still retain is of far greater ^antiquity than that of birds of more specialised and striking appearance. Of course, in the first case, the male has been diffei-entiated by sexual selection, and in the second the colouring has been retained for protective purposes; whereas in the Pigeons referred to the female has inherited her colouring through her male ancestry. Now, if we admit this, would not the result of hybridising 'birds in which the sexes resembled each other with those in which. A spot-breasted nestling Sedge-Warbler, they differed greatly, tend to produce females with partly developed male characteristics? If so (and it ought to in my opinion), would it not throw light upon the process by which the female colouring was modified so as to resemble that of the male ? It would be an interesting experiment. As recorded in ' British Birds with their Nests and Eggs,' I caught a bird in my garden which I concluded was a Thrush and Blackbird hybrid, the upper parts being deep smoky brown, the chin and throat white streaked with dull black; the breast in certain hghts showing traces of the true Song-Thrush spotting; the bill, which was formed like that of a cock Blackbird, was deep orange with the basal half of the culmen black; the feet were yellowish Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Avicultural Society. [Ascot, Berkshire, etc. : Avicultural Society, etc. ]
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1894
