40 THE DESCENT O'F MA^. 



probably will dispute that many gallinaceous birds Avbicb 

 live on the open ground have acquired their present 

 colors, at least in part, for the sake of protection. We 

 know how well they are thus concealed ; we know that 

 ptarmigans, while changing from their winter to their 

 summer plumage, both of which are protective, suffer 

 greatly from birds of prey. But can we believe that the 

 very slight differences in tints and markings between, for 

 instance, the female black-grouse and red-grouse serve as a 

 protection? Are partridges, as they are now colored, 

 better protected than if they had resembled quails? Do the 

 slight differences between the females of the common 

 pheasant, the Japan and gold pheasants, serve as a pro- 

 tection, or might not their plumages have been inter- 

 changed with impunity? From what Mr. Wallace has 

 observed of the habits of certain gallinaceous birds in the 

 east, he thinks that such slight differences are beneficial. 

 For myself, I will only say that I am not convinced. 



Formerly when I was inclined to lay much stress on pro- 

 tection as accounting for the duller colors of female birds, 

 it occurred to me that possibly both sexes and the young 

 might aboriginally have been equally bright colored ; but 

 that subsequently, the females from the danger incurred 

 during incubation, and the young from being inexperienced, 

 had been rendered dull as a protection. But this view is 

 not supported by any evidence, and is not probable; for 

 we thus in imagination expose during past times the 

 females and the young to danger, from which it has sub- 

 sequently been necessary to shield their modified descend- 

 ants. We have, also, to reduce, through a gradual process 

 of selection, the females and the young to almost exactly 

 the same tints and markings, and to transmit them to the 

 corresponding sex and period of life. On tlie supposition 

 that the females and the young have partaken during each 

 stage of the process of modification of a tendency to be as 

 brightly colored as the males, it is also a somewhat strange 

 fact that the females have never been rendered dull colored 

 without the young participating in the same change; for 

 there are no instances, as far as I can discover, of species 

 with the females dull and the young bright colored. A 

 partial exception, however, is offered by the young of cer- 

 tain woodpeckers, for they have " the whole upper part of 

 the head tinged with red," which afterward either decreases 



