BIRDS, 521 



analogous cases; in most of the species both sexes are 

 brilliantly colored and indistinguishable, but in not a few 

 species the males are colored rather more vividly than the 

 females, or even very differently from them. Thus, besides 

 other strongly marked differences, the whole under surface 

 of the male king lory {Aprosmictus scapulatus) is scarlet, 

 while the throat and chest of the female is green tinged 

 with red; in the Euphema splendida there is a similar dif- 

 ference, the face and wing coverts moreover of the female 

 being of a paler blue than in the male. * In the family of the 

 tits {Parince), which build concealed nests, the female 

 of our common blue tomtit {Par us ccer ulcus) is " much 

 less brightly colored " than the male ; and in the 

 magnificent Sultan yellow tit of India the difference is 

 greater, f 



Again, in the great group of the woodpeckers, J; the sexes 

 are generally nearly alike, but in the Megapicus validus all 

 those parts of the head, neck and breast which are crimson 

 in the male are pale-brown in the female. As in several 

 woodpeckers the head of the male is bright crimson, while 

 that of the female is plain, it occurred to me that this color 

 might possibly make the female dangerously conspicuous 

 whenever she put her head out of the hole containing her 

 nest, and consequently that this color, in accordance with 

 Mr. Wallace^s belief, had been eliminated. This view is 

 strengthened by what Malherbe states with respect to 

 Indopicus carlotta; namely, that the young females, like the 

 young males, have some crimson about their heads, but that 

 this color disappears in the adult female, while it is intensi- 

 fied in the adult male. Nevertheless, the following con- 

 siderations render this view extremely doubtful ; the male 

 takes a fair share in incubation, and would be thus almost 

 equally exposed to danger; both sexes of many species have 

 their heads of an equally bright crimson; in other species 



* Every gradation of difference between the sexes may be followed 

 in the parrots of Australia. See Gould's " Hand-book," etc., vol. ii, 

 pp. 14-102. 



f Macgillivray's " British Birds," vol. ii, p. 433. Jerdon, " Birds 

 of India," vol. ii, p. 282. 



X All the following facts are taken from M. Malherbe's magnificent 

 " Monographic des Picidees," 1861. 



Audubon's "Ornithological Biography," vol. ii, p. 75; see also 

 the " Ibis," vol. i, p. 268. 



