Chap. XVI.] THE YOUNG LIKE THE ADULT MALES. 193 



valry, so the females of this Turnix are employed in India. 

 When thus exposed the females soon begin their " loud, 

 purring call, which can be heard a long way oiF, and any 

 females within ear-shot run rapidly to the spot, and com- 

 mence fighting with the caged bird." In this way from 

 twelve to twenty birds, all breeding-females, may be 

 caught in the course of a single day. The natives assert 

 that the females after laying their eggs associate in flocks, 

 and leave the males to sit on them. There is no reason 

 to doubt the truth of this assertion, which is supported by 

 some observations made in China by Mr. Swinhoe." Mr. 

 Blyth believes that the young of both sexes resemble the 

 adult male. 



The females of the three species of Painted Snipes 

 (Rhynchsea) " are not only larger, but much more richly 

 colored than the males." " With all other birds, in 

 which the trachea diifers in structure in the two sexes, 

 it is more developed and complex in the male than in the 

 female ; but in the MhynchcBa Australis it is simple in 

 the male, while in the female it makes four distinct con- 

 volutions before entering the lungs." The female, there- 

 fore, of this species has acquired an eminently masculine 

 character. Mr. Blyth ascertained, by examining many 

 specimens, that the trachea is not convoluted in either sex 

 of It. Sengalensis^ which species so closely resembles R. 

 Australis that it can hardly be distinguished except by 

 its shorter toes. This fact is another striking instance of 

 the law that secondary sexual characters are often widely 

 different in closely-allied forms ; though it is a very rare 

 circumstance when such differences relate to the female 

 sex. The young of both sexes of M. Bengalensis in their 



>' Jerdon, ' Birds of India,' vol. iii. p. 596. Mr. Swinhoe, in ' Ibis,' 

 1865, p. 542; 1866, pp. 131, 405. 



'* Jerdon, ' Birds of India.' vol. iii. p. eYY. 

 " Gould's ' Hand-book of the Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. p. 275. 

 28 



