[359] I am much obliged to Mr. Cupples for having made enquiries for me in regard to the Roebuck and Red Deer of Scotland from Mr. Robertson, the experienced head-forester to the Marquis of Breadalbane. In regard to Fallow-deer, I am obliged to Mr. Eyton and others for information. For the Cervus alces of N. America, see ‘Land and Water,’ 1868, p. 221 and 254; and for the C. Virginianus and strongyloceros of the same continent, see J. D. Caton, in ‘Ottawa Acad. of Nat. Sc.’ 1868, p. 13. For Cervus Eldi of Pegu, see Lieut. Beavan, ‘Proc. Zoolog. Soc.’ 1867, p. 762.
[360] Antilocapra Americana. Owen, ‘Anatomy of Vertebrates,’ vol. iii. p. 627.
[361] I have been assured that the horns of the sheep in North Wales can always be felt, and are sometimes even an inch in length, at birth. With cattle Youatt says (‘Cattle,’ 1834, p. 277) that the prominence of the frontal bone penetrates the cutis at birth, and that the horny matter is soon formed over it.
[362] I am greatly indebted to Prof. Victor Carus for having made inquiries for me, from the highest authorities, with respect to the merino sheep of Saxony. On the Guinea coast of Africa there is a breed of sheep in which, as with merinos, the rams alone bear horns; and Mr. Winwood Reade informs me that in the one case observed, a young ram born on Feb. 10th first showed horns on March 6th, so that in this instance the development of the horns occurred at a later period of life, conformably with our rule, than in the Welsh sheep, in which both sexes are horned.
[363] In the common peacock (Pavo cristatus) the male alone possesses spurs, whilst both sexes of the Java peacock (P. muticus) offer the unusual case of being furnished with spurs. Hence I fully expected that in the latter species they would have been developed earlier in life than in the common peacock; but M. Hegt of Amsterdam informs me, that with young birds of the previous year, belonging to both species, compared on April 23rd, 1869, there was no difference in the development of the spurs. The spurs, however, were as yet represented merely by slight knobs or elevations. I presume that I should have been informed if any difference in the rate of development had subsequently been observed.
[364] In some other species of the Duck Family the speculum in the two sexes differs in a greater degree; but I have not been able to discover whether its full development occurs later in life in the males of such species, than in the male of the common duck, as ought to be the case according to our rule. With the allied Mergus cucullatus we have, however, a case of this kind: the two sexes differ conspicuously in general plumage, and to a considerable degree in the speculum, which is pure white in the male and greyish-white in the female. Now the young males at first resemble, in all respects, the female, and have a greyish-white speculum, but this becomes pure white at an earlier age than that at which the adult male acquires his other more strongly-marked sexual differences in plumage: see Audubon, ‘Ornithological Biography,’ vol. iii. 1835, p. 249-250.
[365] ‘Das Ganze der Taubenzucht,’ 1837, s. 21, 24. For the case of the streaked pigeons, see Dr. Chapuis, ‘Le Pigeon Voyageur Belge.’ 1865, p. 87.
[366] For full particulars and references on all these points respecting the several breeds of the Fowl, see ‘Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,’ vol. i. p. 250, 256. In regard to the higher animals, the sexual differences which have arisen under domestication are described in the same work under the head of each species.
[367] ‘Twenty-ninth Annual Report of the Registrar-General for 1866.’ In this report (p. xii) a special decennial table is given.
[368] For Norway and Russia, see abstract of Prof. Faye’s researches, in ‘British and Foreign Medico-Chirurg. Review,’ April, 1867, p. 343, 345. For France, the ‘Annuaire pour l’An 1867.’ p. 213.