202 Heredity. 



of Paradise in their beauty, as every one will admit who 

 has seen Mr. Gould's splendid yolumes in his rich col- 

 lection. It is very remarkable in how many different 

 ways these birds are ornamented. Almost every part of 

 the plumage has been taken advantage of and modified. 

 . . . When the sexes of birds differ in beauty, in 

 the power of singing, or in producing instrumental mu- 

 sic, it is almost invariably the male which excels the fe- 

 male." 



This extract is enough to show the wonderful diver- 

 sity of the characteristics of male birds, and the fol- 

 lowing examples bring out very prominently the fact 

 that male birds of allied species often differ greatly in 

 their sexual characters, while the females are very much 

 alike. In the South American bell-birds the females of 

 the four species resemble each other very closely, and are 

 of a dusky green color, while the male of one species 

 is pure white; in a second species white with the excep- 

 tion of a large space of naked skin on the throat and 

 round the eyes, which during the breeding season is of a 

 fine green color, while in a third species only the head 

 and neck of the male are white and the rest of the body 

 chestnut-brown. In one species the male alone is pro- 

 vided with three filamentous projections half as long as 

 the body, one rising from the base of the beak and the 

 others from the corners of the mouth, while in another 

 species the male has a spiral tube nearly three inches in 

 length which rises from the base of the beak and is jet 

 black dotted over with minute downy feathers. In the 

 Indian chats, honeysuckers, shrikes, kingfishers, Kallij 

 pheasants, and tree partridges, the males of allied species 

 from distinct countries are quite different from each 

 other, while the females and the young of both sexes are 

 indistinguishable. 



