xiv INTRODUCTION. 



she allowed such brilliant tints to be developed in the female ? By sending 

 the Kingfisher to a hole in a bank to lay her eggs and rear her young in 

 darkness, Nature provides most admirably a means of safety for this bird, 

 one of the brightest of her gems. The gaily dressed Woodpeckers (Picidse) 

 have the sexes nearly alike, and the females nest shielded from view in 

 holes of trees. The Tits (Parinse) are another instance. Both sexes in 

 this group of birds are alike, and generally gaily attired ; they lay their 

 eggs and rear their young in holes of trees, stumps, and walls, where the 

 beautiful but conspicuous plumage of the female does not affect the safety 

 of her brood. In the delicate and somewhat showy Goldcrests (Regulus) 

 the sexes are but slightly different in colour, and the female hides her showy 

 crest in a well-concealed nest. The homely Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is 

 another instance where the sexes are similarly adorned with bright and showy 

 tints, and, as is well known, it nests in holes well concealed from view. 

 The showy Swallows and Martins also have the sexes alike, and build 

 covered nests in which the brightly adorned females are protected. The 

 gaudy Rollers and brilliant Bee-eaters (Meropidse) have both sexes 

 similarly bright and conspicuous, and they nest in holes. The showy 

 Hoopoe (Upupa) and charming Wall-Creeper (Tichodroma) and Nuthatch 

 (Sit to) have the sexes almost alike in colour, and rear their young 

 in holes. The Common Sheldrake is another instance, from a widely 

 different group of birds *. 



It has been urged by Mr. Allen (in his article already mentioned) that 

 many domed nests, in which the showy parent bird is concealed from view 

 whilst incubating, are in reality not so safe as many open, but better con- 

 cealed, nests. But this I think cannot be regarded as an objection. Among 

 North-American birds that build purse-shaped or pensile nests may be 

 cited the American Orioles (Icteridse), which construct a nest, Mr. Allen 

 says, " most illy adapted for protection from the most dangerous foes of the 

 species, the predatory Crows, Jays, and Cuckoos, being often a conspicuous 

 object, with, so far as the United States species are concerned, no com- 

 pensating feature of security." But I venture to assert that these pendent 

 purse-shaped structures, which are built by so many birds in the tropics, 

 are very secure from such enemies, and even more so from snakes, weasels, 

 monkeys, wild cats, and other animals. They are often hung at the ex- 

 tremity of long slender branches, in many cases over water, or the nest 

 itself is suspended by a long neatly-woven cord, or, in some cases, a narrow 



* It is worthy of remark that the brilliantly dressed males of so many of the Ducks 

 assume a dull inconspicuous garb during the period when the young are being reared. 

 These birds have probably acquired this peculiarity through the fact of their young being 

 reared in the open. Showily dressed polygamous males desert the female during this 

 anxious period ; others, which are not polygamous, in the majority of cases, rear their young 

 in covered nests. 



