160 SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. [Part IL 



nests, the nuiles in these cases would have suffered greatly. 

 It might, however, be of such paramount importance to 

 the male to be brilliantly colored, in order to beat his 

 rivals, that this would more than compensate for some ad- 

 ditional danger. 



Mr. Wallace admits that with the King-crows (Dicru- 

 rus), Orioles, and Pittida?, the females are conspicuously 

 colored, yet they build open nests ; but he urges that the 

 birds of the first group are highly pugnacious and could 

 defend themselves ; that those of the second group take 

 extreme care in concealing their open nests, but this does 

 not invariably hold good; " and that with the birds of the 

 third group the females are brightly colored chiefly on 

 the under surface. Besides these cases the whole great 

 family of pigeons, which are sometimes brightly and 

 almost always conspicuously colored, and which are noto- 

 riously liable to the attacks of birds of prey, offers a seri- 

 ous exception to the rule, for pigeons almost always build 

 open and exposed nests. In another large family, that of 

 the Humming-birds, all the species build open nests, yet 

 with some of the most gorgeous species the sexes are 

 alike ; and, in the majority, the females, though less bril- 

 liant than the males, are very brightly colored. Nor can 

 it be maintained that all female humming-birds, which are 

 brightly colored, escape detection by their tints being 

 green, for some display on their upper surfaces red, blue, 

 and other colors.'* 



" Jerdon, 'Birds of India,' vol. ii. p. 108. Gould's 'Hand-book of 

 the Birds of Australia,' vol. i. p. 463. 



" For instance, the female Eupetomena macroura has the head and 

 tail dark blue with reddish loins; the female Lampornis porphyrurvs is 

 blackish-green on the upper surface, with the lores and sides of the 

 throat crimson ; the female Eulampis juffuhiris has the top of the head 

 and back green, but the loins and the tail are crimson. Many other in- 

 stances of highly-conspicuous females could be given. See Mr. Gould's 

 magnificent work on this family. 



