126 NATURAL SELECTION % vi 



12. Parrots (Psittaci). In this great tribe, adorned with 

 the most brilliant and varied colours, the rule is that the 

 sexes are precisely alike, and this is the case in the most 

 gorgeous families, the lories, the cockatoos, and the macaws ; 

 but in some there is a sexual difference of colour to a 

 slight extent. All build in holes, mostly in trees, but some- 

 times in the ground, or in white ants' nests. In the single 

 case in which the nest is exposed, that of the Australian 

 ground parrot, Pezoporus formosus, the bird has lost the gay 

 colouring of its allies, and is clothed in sombre and completely 

 protective tints of dusky green and black. 



13. Gapers (Eurylsemidae). In these beautiful Eastern 

 birds, somewhat allied to the American chatterers, the sexes 

 are exactly alike, and are adorned with the most gay and con- 

 spicuous markings. The nest is a woven structure, covered over, 

 and suspended from the extremities of branches over water. 



14. Pardalotus (Ampelidae). In these Australian birds 

 the females differ from the males, but are often very con- 

 spicuous, having brightly -spotted heads. Their nests are 

 sometimes dome shaped, sometimes in holes of trees, or in 

 burrows in the ground. 



15. Tits (Paridse). These little birds are always pretty, and 

 many (especially among the Indian species) are very conspicuous. 

 They always have the sexes alike, a circumstance very unusual 

 among the smaller gaily-coloured birds of our own country. 

 The nest is always covered over or concealed in a hole. 



16. Nuthatches (Sitta). Often very pretty birds, the 

 sexes alike, and the nest in a hole. 



17. (SitteUa). The female of these Australian nut- 

 hatches is often the most conspicuous, being white and black 

 marked. The nest is, according to Gould, " completely con- 

 cealed among upright twigs connected together." 



18. Creepers (Climacteris). In these Australian creepers 

 the sexes are alike, or the female most conspicuous, and the 

 nest is in a hole of a tree. 



19. Estrelda, Amadina. In these genera of Eastern and 

 Australian finches the females, although more or less different 

 from the males, are still very conspicuous, having a red rump, 

 or being white spotted. They differ from most others of the 

 family in building domed nests. 



