THE WOODPECKERS 341 



patches as being first developed by the male, then by the female, and 

 finally l)y the voting, and instances where such patches appear in the 

 fledgling and disappear in the adult are rare indeed. The facts just 

 set down are the more noteworthy, since as regards the rest of the 

 plumage there is no very striking difference between adults and 

 young, the green-woodpecker showing the greatest contrast in this 

 respect But the male of this species differs from the female, as we 

 have already remarked, in having a malar patch of red he represents 

 the most highly coloured of his race ; next after him comes Qfdnua 

 raillanti of North Africa, the male of which lacks the red malar stripe ; 

 and after him, G. canus of the Continent, wherein the male has 

 only a small area of red on the crown, the young a still smaller patch, 

 and the female none at all. Herein we have another instance where 

 the usual sequence of the development of colour, first by the male, 

 then by the female, and finally by the young, does not obtain. 



The natural bias towards red, so to speak, is seen again in the 

 great spotted- woodpecker, since between the Persian (Julf and the 

 Mediterranean other forms occur which show a tendency to produce 

 a red pert oral kind, which is traceable even, occasionally, in our 

 British race ; and this tendency finds its final expression in Dendrocopiu 

 numidiciiH of North Africa, wherein a crimson pectoral band is con- 

 spicuous. 



