The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-23

Inc same law maniiests itself in birds. I
The female, while sitting on her eggs, re-
quires protection by ooncealment to a much
greater extent than the male: and we ac-
cordingly find that in large majority of
the cases in which the male birds are dis
tnguished by unusual brilliancy of plumage
the females are much more obscure, and
often remarkably plain-coored. The excep-
tions are such as eminently to prove the rule,
for in most cases we can see very good real
son for them. In particular, there a few in
stances among wading and gallinaceous birds
in which the female has decidedly more brill
liant colors than the male; but it is a most
curious and interesting fact that in most if
not all, these cases the males sit upon the
eggs; so that this exception to the usual rule
almost demonstrates that il is because the pro-
cess of incubation is at once very important
and very dangerous, that the protection of
obscure colOring is developed. The most
striking example is that of the sooty phalarope
(PhalaOpus fulcarus, Linn.) In winter plu-
mage the sexes of this bird are alike in colora-
tion, but in summer the female is much the
most conspicuous, having black head, dark
wings, and reddish-broWn back, while the
male is nearly uniform brown, with dusky
spots. Mr.. Gould, in his "Birds of Great
Britain, figures the two sexes in both winter
! and summer plumage, and remarks on the
strange peculiarity of the usual colors of the
two sexes being reversed, and also on the still
the eggs" which are deposited on the bare
ground. In another British Bird the dot
terrell, the female is also lighter and more
brightly colOTed than the male; and it seems
to te proven that the males assist in incuba-
| ton, even if they do not perform it entirely;
| for Mr.. Gould tells us, that they have been
shot with the breast bare of feathers,
caused by sitting on the eggs" The
small quail-like birds, forming the genus
TuInix, have also generally large and
| bright-colored females, and we are
told by Mr.. Jerdon, in his "Birds of India,
| that 1.-THE natives report that during the breed
ing season the females desert their eggs, and
associate in focks while the males are en-
ployed in Matching the eggs" 1t is also an
| asceTtained fact that the females are more
bold and pugnacious than the males. A
further continuation of this view is to be
| found in the fact (not hitherto nOticed) that
| in a large majority of the cases in which bright
colors exist in both sexes, incubation takes
| place in dark hole or in a dome-shaped nest.
! Female kingfshers are often equally brilliant
with the males, and they build in holes in
banks. Bee-eaters, trogons, motmOts, and
| toucans all build in holes, and in none is there
any difference in the sexes, although they are,
without exception, snowy birds. Parrots
| build in holes in trees, and in the majority
of cases they present no marked sexual diff
ference tending to the concealment of the
| female. WOodpeckers are in the same cate
| CORY, since, though the sexes often differ in
color, the female is not generally less con-
spicuous than the male. Wagtails and titmice
build concealed nests, and the females are
nearly as gay as their mates The female of
| the pretty Australian bird Pardalotus puncta-
tus is very cOnspicuously spotted on the
| upper surface, and it builds in a hole in the
ground. The gay-colOred hang nests (lcte-
rin9), and the equally brilliant Tanagers, may
be well contrasted for the former, concealed
in their covered nests, present little or no
| sexual difference of color-while the open
nested Tanagers have the females dull-colored
and sometimes with almost protective tints
No doubt there are many individual exceptions
| to the rule here indicated, because many and
various causes have combined to determine
| both the coloratiOn and the habits of birds.
These have, no doubt, acted and reacted on
each other and then, under changed cond-
tions, it may well have happened that one
has become modified, while the other has been
continued by hereitary descent, and exists as
an apparent exception to what otherwise
seems a very general rule. The facts pre-
sented to us by the sexual differences of
color in birds and their mode of nesting, are
ON the whole i'll perfect harmony with that
law of protective adaptation of color and form
| which appears to have checked to some ex-
tent the powerful action of sexual selection,
and to have materially influenced the cOloring
of female birds, as it has undoubtedly done
that of female insects.
We have now completed brief, and neces-
sarily very imperfect survey of the various
ways in which the external form and coloring
of animals is adapted to be useful to them,
either by concealing them from their enemies
or from the creatures they prey upon. 1t has,
we hope, been shown that the subject is one
of much interest, both as regards a true COM
prehension of the place each animal fills in the
economy of nature, and the means by which 1t
is enabled to maintain that place; and also as
teaching us how important part is played by
the minutest details in the structure of ami
mails, and how complicated and delicate is the
equilibrium of the organic world Westminster