more plainly, because they refer to peculiarities which might have supervened,
as far as we can see, earlier or later in life, yet are inherited at the same
period at which they first appeared.

[In the Lambert family the porcupine-like excrescences appeared in the father
and sons at the same age, namely, about nine weeks after birth. (14/30.
Prichard 'Phys. Hist. of Mankind' 1851 volume 1 page 349.) In the
extraordinary hairy family described by Mr. Crawfurd (14/31. 'Embassy to the
Court of Ava' volume 1 page 320. The third generation is described by Capt.
Yule in his 'Narrative of the Mission to the Court of Ava' 1855 page 94.),
children were produced during three generations with hairy ears; in the father
the hair began to grow over his body at six years old; in his daughter
somewhat earlier, namely, at one year; and in both generations the milk teeth
appeared late in life, the permanent teeth being afterwards singularly
deficient. Greyness of hair at an unusually early age has been transmitted in
some families. These cases border on diseases inherited at corresponding
periods of life, to which I shall immediately refer.

It is a well-known peculiarity with almond-tumbler pigeons, that the full
beauty and peculiar character of the plumage does not appear until the bird
has moulted two or three times. Neumeister describes and figures a brace of
pigeons in which the whole body is white except the breast, neck, and head;
but in their first plumage all the white feathers have coloured edges. Another
breed is more remarkable: its first plumage is black, with rusty-red wing-bars
and a crescent-shaped mark on the breast; these marks then become white, and
remain so during three or four moults; but after this period the white spreads
over the body, and the bird loses its beauty. (14/32. 'Das Ganze der
Taubenzucht' 1837 s. 24 tab. 4 figure 2 s. 21 tab. 1 figure 4.) Prize canary-
birds have their wings and tail black: "this colour, however, is only retained
until the first moult, so that they must be exhibited ere the change takes