scarcely feathered, stone-blind from fighting; the rival couples moping in corners, and renewing their battles on obtaining the first ray of light." The weapons and pugnacity of all male gallinaceous birds evidently serve the purpose of gaining possession of the females; so that the tendency in our Game chickens to fight at an extremely early age is not only useless, but injurious, as they suffer much from their wounds. The training for battle during an early age may be natural to the wild Gallus bankiva; but as man during many generations has gone on selecting the most obstinately pugnacious cocks, it is more probable that their pugnacity has been unnaturally increased, and unnaturally transferred to the young male chickens. In the same manner, it is probable that the extraordinary development of the comb in the Spanish cock has been unintentionally transferred to the young cocks; for fanciers would not care whether their young birds had large combs, but would select for breeding the adults which had the finest combs, whether or not developed at an early period. The last point which need here be noticed is that, though the chickens of Spanish and Malay fowls are well covered with down, the true feathers are acquired at an unusually late age; so that for a time the young birds are partially naked, and are liable to suffer from cold. SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS. The two sexes in the parent-form, the Gallus bankiva, differ much in colour. In our domestic breeds the difference is never greater, but is often less, and varies much in degree even in the sub-breeds of the same main breed. Thus in certain Game fowls the difference is as great as in the parent-form, whilst in the black and white sub-breeds there is no difference in plumage. Mr. Brent informs me that he has seen two strains of black-breasted red Games, of which the cocks could not be distinguished, whilst the hens in one were partridge-brown and in the other fawn-brown. A similar case has been observed in the strains of the brown-breasted red Game. The hen of the "duck-winged Game" is "extremely beautiful," and differs much from the hens of all the other Game sub-breeds; but generally, as with the blue and grey Game and with some sub-varieties of the pile- game, a moderately close relation may be observed between the males and females in the variation of their plumage. (7/45. See the full description of the varieties of the Game-breed in Tegetmeier 'Poultry Book' 1866 page 131. For Cuckoo Dorkings page 97.) A similar relation is also evident when we compare the several varieties of Cochins. In the two sexes of gold and silver-spangled and of buff Polish fowls, there is much general similarity in the colouring and marks of the whole plumage, excepting of course in the hackles, crest, and beard. In spangled Hamburghs, there is likewise a considerable degree of similarity between the two sexes. In pencilled Hamburghs, on the other hand, there is much dissimilarity; the pencilling