Chap. XVIII.] ORNAMENTAL COLORS. 273 



at others, and the fur of the male is generally brighter 

 than that of the female," ^° Dr. Gray informs me that he 

 specified the African squirrels, because, from their unusu- 

 ally bright colors, they best exhibit this difference. The 

 female of the Mus minutus of Russia is of a paler and 

 dirtier tint than the male. In some few bats the fur of 

 the male is lighter and brighter than in the female.''* 



The terrestrial Carnivora and Insectivora rarely exhib- 

 it sexual differences of any kind, and their colors are al- 

 most always exactly the same in both sexes. The ocelot 

 {Felis pardalis)^ however, offers an exception, for the col- 

 ors of the female, compared with those of the male, are 

 "moins apparentes, le fauve etant plus tei'ne, le blanc 

 moins pur, les raies ayant moins de largeur et les taches 

 moins de diam^tre." " The sexes of the allied Felis mitis 

 also differ, but even in a less degree, the general hues of 

 the female being rather paler than in the male, with the 

 spots less black. The marine Carnivora or Seals, on the 

 other hand, sometimes differ considerably in color, and 

 they present, as we have already seen, other remarkable 

 sexual differences. Thus the male of the Otaria nigres- 

 cens of the southern hemisphere is of a rich brown shade 

 above ; while the female, who acquires her adult tints 

 earlier in life than the male, is dark gray above, the young 

 of both sexes being of a very deep chocolate color. The 

 male of the northern Phoca Groenlandica is tawny gray, 

 with a curious saddle-shaped dark mark on the back; the 

 female is much smaller, and has a very different appear- 

 ance, being " dull white or yellowish straw-color, with a 



2» 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' Nov. ISBY, p. 325. On the Mus 

 minutus, Desmarest, ' Mammalogie,' p. 304. 



^' J. A. Allen, in ' Bulletin of Mus. Comp. Zoolog. of Cambridge, Uni- 

 ted States,' 1869, p. 207. 



^^ Desmarest, ' Mammalogie,' 1820, p. 223. On Felis mitis, Rengger, 

 ibid. s. 194. 



