RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS. 115 



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 it is because the process of 

 incubation is at once very important and very dan- 

 gerous, that the protection of obscure colouring is 

 developed. The most striking example is that of the 

 gray phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius). When in 

 winter plumage, the sexes of this bird are alike in 

 colouration, but in summer the female is much the 

 most conspicuous, having a 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 colours of the two 

 sexes being reversed, and also on the still more curious 

 fact that the " male alone sits on the eggs," which 

 are deposited on the bare ground. In another British 

 bird, the dotterell, the female is also larger and more 

 brightly-coloured than the male ; and it seems to be 

 proved that the males assist in incubation 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 Turnix have also 

 generally large and bright-coloured females, and we 

 are told by Mr. Jerdon in his " Birds of India " that 

 "the natives report that during the breeding season 

 the females desert their eggs and associate in flocks 

 while the males are employed in hatching the eggs." 



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