It is only needed, nevertheless, to take a look at a couple of young Grouse chicks of various ages to be convinced that greater than a bit of the black rectrices ought to appear earlier than the bird is shot. Nine of these little feathers might be counted in sequence, and the weakest of all is the ninth counting from the distal to the proximal end. The peritoneal folds are delicate and require cautious handling, they usually overlie the generative organs and the kidneys; but a very little observe will enable any one to do the mandatory dissection with certainty, and to arrive at an irrefutable prognosis as to sex. The only indication will then be a slight difference within the form and contour of the 2 last feathers as indicated above. Even in the summer time months when the cock puts on a plumage intently simulating the breeding plumage of the hen, there’s a distinction in the final tone and color, and confusion is not going. The Indians of Guiana are effectively acquainted with the cleared arenas, the place they expect to find the gorgeous cocks of the Rock; and the natives of new Guinea know the trees where from ten to twenty male birds of paradise in full plumage congregate.
1 and 2 are approaching full progress, the weak chicken feathers Nos. 9, 8, 7, and so on have been shed, and in their place have appeared sturdy feather -roots rising sturdy, round-ended, uniform black primaries, instead of the weak, mottled, more narrowly pointed hen primaries. There may be another technique of determining a chicken’s age which is commonly used as a tough indication upon the moor, namely, to pull out the third major feather of the wing at its distal finish. 2 and 1 are found to have grown into such lengthy and robust feathers as to fall into the series of recent alternative feathers, and so that they remain, now fully grown, and they are often recognised (K) by their more pointed ends having reasonably more of the buff markings on them than have the remainder of the primaries simply grown from No. 9 to No. 3. No. 3, moreover, being the latest of the entire collection of primaries to emerge, is for a time the shortest one; and, even when so long as No. 2, might be nonetheless the final one grown, and can therefore upon withdrawal produce blood at the quill end when squeezed between the finger and thumb.
Probably most sportsmen shall be guided better by the energy of the fowl upon the wing than by the black tail feathers,, however clearly visible in a half-grown chick. In dissection, the age of an outdated hen is apparent, maybe as plainly upon the table as elsewhere. Another signal usually used to check the age of a chook is the strength of the decrease jaw. The load of the hen is allowed to hold without support by holding the tip of the decrease bill solely. The grits of the gizzard in an outdated bird appear to be larger and more worn into rounded pebble shapes, the reason for this has been discussed elsewhere. If no blood will be squeezed, and the feather is old and dry, it is taken into account as an indication that the chook is more than a year previous. The cheeks are usually a clear bronze or chestnut-crimson colour; so are the feathers of the chin, throat, fore-neck, and upper breast, giving the fowl a very wealthy uniform crimson color throughout the top and neck. The feathers of the chin are a very helpful indication of intercourse from August to November, virtually all through the taking pictures season, for the chestnut-crimson feathers which could be found on the chin of the cock Grouse in each month of the year will probably be sought for in vain in the hen at this time.
We will begin with the oblique evidence. And if I may give you my judgment freely, I will say, that I can’t draw from all these Queries, any sense that interfereth with the motion of the Earth; for if I demand of this Author, (granting him that the Earth doth not transfer) what would observe in all these particulars, supposing that it do move, as Copernicus will have it; I’m very confident, that he would say that each one these results would happen, that he hath objected, as inconveniences to disprove its mobility: so that on this mans opinion essential consequences are accounted absurdities: but I beseech you, if there be any more, dispatch them, and free us speedily from this wearisom job. Hence we may conclude, that it’s the item of the male to induce the feminine to pair with him, and for this purpose he tries to excite or charm her in numerous ways; and that is the opinion of all these who have rigorously studied the habits of living birds. We should recollect that the dominating plumage of the male is the winter plumage, while that of the feminine is the summer time or breeding plumage. But within the autumn and winter it’s comparatively simple to mistake the intercourse of some people, for when the hen has placed on her autumn plumage for the winter, and the cock has placed on his winter plumage, certain individuals of reverse sex are then indistinguishable, even to the practised eyes of the experienced gamekeeper.