166 SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. [Part IL 



markings. It is an interesting fact, as showing how the 

 same peculiar style of sexual coloring often characterizes 

 allied forms, that in three species of Dacelo the male dif- 

 fers from the female only in the tail heing dull-l>lue 

 banded with black, while that of the female is brown with 

 blackish bars ; so that here the tail differs in color in the 

 two sexes in exactly the same manner as the whole upper 

 surface in the sexes of Carcineutcs. 



With parrots, which likewise build in holes, we find 

 analogous cases : in most of the species both sexes are 

 brilliantly colored and undistinguisliable, but in not a few 

 species the males are colored rather more vividly than the 

 females, or even very differently from them. Thus, be- 

 sides other strongly-marked differences, the whole under 

 surface of tlie male King Lory [Apros/nlctus scapulatus), is 

 scarlet, while the throat and chest of the female are green 

 tinged with red: in the Eupheyna splendida there is a 

 similar difference, the face and wing-coverts, moreover, of 

 the female being of a paler blue than in the male."' In 

 the family of the Tits {ParinoB)^ which build concealed 

 nests, the female of our common blue tomtit [Parus cmru- 

 leus) is " much less brightly colored " than the male ; and 

 in the magnificent Sultan yellow tit of India the differ- 

 ence is greater." 



Again, in the great group of the woodpeckers,"* the 

 sexes are generally nearly alike, but in the Megapicus 

 validus all those parts of the head, neck, and breast, 

 which are crimson in the male are pale brown in the fe- 



'* Every gradation of difference between the sexes may be followed in 

 the parrots of Australia. See Gould's 'Hand-book,' etc., vol. ii. pp. 14- 

 102. 



" Macgillivray's ' British Birds,' vol. ii. p. 433. Jerdon,. ' Birds of 

 India,' vol. ii. p. 282. 



** All the following facts are taken from 51. Malherbe's magnificent 

 ' Monographic des Picid6es,' 1861. 



