1878.] TRACHEA OF RHYNCHAV CAPENSIS. /47 



endowed of the two sexes ; but to this there are a few interesting 

 and remarkable exceptions {Phalaropus, Casuarius, Dromaus, Mil- 

 vago, Climacteris, Eurostopodus, and the Rhynchseas), of which 

 the last, the ones we are here concerned with, are not the least 

 conspicuous. In these birds in general, and in the Painted Snipes 

 in particular, it may be taken as established that we have, to use 

 the words of Mr. Darwin, a complete reversal not only of the 

 secondary sexual characters, but also of the parental and incubating 

 instincts — the females being not only larger and much more richly 

 coloured than the males 1 , but having the trachea more or less 

 tortuous instead of straight and simple, deputing the duty of incuba- 

 tion to the other sex, and reserving the business of courting to them- 

 selves. 



In Rhyncheea australis, according to Gould 2 , the trachea, which is 

 simple in the males, in the females passes down between the skin 

 and the muscles of the breast for the whole length of the body, 

 making four distinct convolutions before entering the lungs; but 

 Mr. Darwin states, on the authority of Blyth, who had examined 

 many specimens, that " it is not convoluted in either sex in Rh. 

 bengalensis, which species resembles R. australis so closely that it 

 can hardly be distinguished except by its shorter toes." This is the 

 statement which seemed to me to stand in need of corroboration, 

 especially when I called to mind the peculiar call of the female 3 and 

 the sharp squeak jerked out only at long and irregular intervals by 

 the male, and then apparently only in answer to the female. 



On opening the necks of the two birds by a longitudinal incision 

 extending to the middle of the breast or thereabouts, and carefully 

 turning aside the skin on either hand so as not to disturb the natural 

 relations of the underlying parts, I found that the trachea of the 

 adult male (ascertained to be such by subsequent examination of the 

 genital organs) was straight and simple throughout, whilst that of 

 the female had a distinct loop lying between the integument and the 

 interclavicular membrane on the left side, and was not only an abso- 

 lutely but apparently also a relatively stouter tube than that of the 

 male. 



As the contrary of what I have found has been stated by so good 

 and usually trustworthy an observer as Mr. Blyth, I put in evidence 

 two sketches (figs. 1 and 2, p. 748) showing the course of the trachea 

 in the two sexes. For these sketches I am indebted to Col. God- 

 win-Austen, who was with me at the time. 



The numerous birds belonging to this species examined by me may 

 be divided according to sex and age into the following groups : — 



I. Adult and probably old females, remarkable for the extreme 

 richness of their plumage. In all the birds of this group which 



1 Jerdon, 'Birds of India,' vol. iii. p. 677. 



2 ' Handbook to tbe Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. p. 275. 



3 Of R. australis J. Gould says (op. cit. p. 276), " The use of this convoluted 

 trachea, so exclusively confined to the female, I could not in any way discover 

 or surmise ; no note whatever was heard to proceed from either sex whilo on 

 the wing or when flushed" — times at which a call such as that of the female of 

 R. capensis, like the coo of a dove, would be least likely to be heard. 



