Chap XV.l SEXUALLY-LIMITED INHERITANCE. 147 



CHAPTER XV. 



Birds— continued. 



Discussion why the Males alone of some Species, and both Sexes of other 

 Species, are brightly colored. — On Sexually-limited Inheritance, as ap- 

 plied to Various Structures and to Brightly-colored Plumage. — Nidifi- 

 cation in Relation to Color. — Loss of Nuptial Plumage during the 

 Winter. * 



We have in this chapter to consider, why with many- 

 kinds of birds the female has not received the same orna- 

 ments as the male; and why, with many others, both 

 sexes are equally, or almost equally, ornamented ? In the 

 following chapter we shall consider why in some few rare 

 cases the female is more conspicuously colored than the 

 male. 



In my ' Origin of Species ' 1 I briefly suggested that 

 the long tail of the peacock w r ould be inconvenient, and 

 the conspicuous black color of the male capercailzie dan- 

 gerous, to the female during the period of incubation ; and 

 consequently that the transmission of these characters 

 from the male to the female offspring had been checked 

 through natural selection. I still think that this may 

 have occurred in some few instances : but after mature 

 reflection on all the facts which I have been able to collect, 

 I am now inclined to believe that when the sexes differ, 

 the successive variations have generally been from the 

 first limited in their transmission to the same sex in which 



1 Fourth edition, 1866, p. 241. 



