58 PROTECTIVE COLOUR 



Does she nest in a burrow because her feathers are so 

 bright, or is she allowed to wear fine feathers because 

 she nests underground ? Howbeit, oyster-catchers have 

 much the same piebald scheme of plumage as shel- 

 drakes (we called them sea-pies in Scotland on that 

 account), the female scarcely to be distinguished from 

 the male ; yet she lays and hatches on the open shingle 

 without incurring any greater penalty than awaits 

 duller-coloured mothers. 



As there are exceptions to every rule, so are there to 

 that which prescribes greater brilliancy of plumage to 

 cock birds than to hens. The strangest of all occurs in 

 that genus of Lory called Edectus, inhabiting New 

 Guinea and the adjacent islands. These birds are clad 

 uniformly either in scarlet or green ; and the distinction 

 is so well marked and constant that ornithologists pro- 

 posed not many years ago to separate them into two 

 genera the Red Lories and the Green. Count T. 

 Salvadori met with general incredulity when, in 1874, 

 he announced that, so far from being generically dis- 

 tinct, these two groups were respectively male and 

 female. Stranger still, he found that the flaming red 

 birds were all hens and the green birds cocks, and this 

 he succeeded in proving to the satisfaction of the most 

 sceptical. Since then it has been ascertained that the 

 male bird, in his protective green coat, performs all the 

 duties of incubation; whereas the female, having 

 deposited under him the proper number of eggs, flies 

 away in her gay dress to disport herself at garden 

 parties, bridge, or whatever other amusements we may 

 suppose prevail in Papuan circles. 



