Chap. XVIII. ORNAMENTAL COLOURS. 287 



ocelot (Felis pardalis), however, offers an exception, for 

 the colours of the female, compared with those of the 

 male, are " moins apparentes, le fauve etant plus terne, 

 " le blanc moins pur, les raies ayant moins de largeur 

 *' et les taches moins de diametre."^^ Tlie sexes of 

 the allied Felts mitis also differ, but even in a less 

 dep'ee, the i^eneral hues of the female being rather 

 paler than in the male, with the spots less black. 

 The marine Carnivora or Seals, on the other hand, 

 sometimes differ considerably in colour, and they pre- 

 sent, as we have already seen, other remarkable sexual 

 differences. Thus the male of the Otaria nigrescens 

 of the southern hemisphere is of a rich brown shade 

 above ; whilst the female, who acquires her adult tints 

 earlier in life than the male, is dark-grey above, the 

 young of both sexes being of a very deep chocolate 

 colour. The male of the northern Phoea groenlanclica 

 is tawny grey, with a curious saddle-shaped dark mark 

 on the back ; the female is much smaller, and has a 

 very different appearance, being "dull white or yellow- 

 " ish straw-colour, with a tawny hue on the back ; " the 

 young at first are pure white, and can ^' hardly be dis- 

 " tinguislied among the icy hummocks and snow, their 

 " colour thus acting as a protection." ^^ 



With Kuminants sexual differences of colour occur 

 more commonly than in any other order. A difference 

 of this kind is general with the Strepsicerene antelopes ; 

 thus the male nilghau (Portax lyicta) is bluish-grey 

 and much darker than the female, wath the square white 

 patch on the throat, the white marks on the fetlocks. 



"^"^ Desmarest, ' Mammalogie,' 1820, p. 223. Ou Felis mitis, Eenggcr, 

 ibid. s. 194. 



23 Dr. Murie on the Otaiia, ' Proc. Zool. Soc' 1869, p. 108. Mr. 

 E. Brown, on the P. groenlandica, ibid. 1868, p. 417. See also on the 

 colours of seals, Desmarest, ibid. p. 243, 249; 



