104 How to Sex Cage Birds. 



Banded Aracari (Pteroglossus torqualus). 



The female is veiy slightly smaller than the male, and has a con- 

 siderably shorter bill, with less curved tip. In the sexed specimens, 

 I found the black dorsal stripe narrower in the female, but much 

 more elongated. This curious departure from the type of marking 

 found in the preceding species seems to me to indicate that the 

 character of the dorsal stripe must be variable, and therefore 

 unreliable. 



Spot-billed Toucanet (Selenidera maculirostris). 



The female is smaller than the male ; her bill is shorter, less 

 tapering, but with more pronounced terminal hook. The banding 

 of the bill is very variable, but the plumage of the sexes in this 

 species differs considerably. All the steel-black areas in the male 

 plumage are replaced by vinous chestnut in the female, this colour- 

 ing being paler and clearer on the throat and breast than on the 

 upper surface. The broad streak across the lower portion of the 

 ear-coverts, which is orange and yellow in the male, is replaced by 

 a narrower green streak in the female. 



A comparison of the characters indicated above will tend to show 

 that, as a general rule, male Toucans (including Aracaris and 

 Toucanets) are larger than their mates, and have longer and more 

 tapering bills. Whether there is any difference in the colouring 

 of the iris in the sexes has not been stated, therefore there probably 

 is none ; but the soft parts in birds have received so much less 

 attention than ought to be paid to them by collectors, that the 

 colouring of the eyes and other soft parts in living specimens is 

 always worth noting and recording. In the case of some of the 

 nearly related Doves (the local races of the Passerine Dove, for 

 instance), the differences in the colouring of the soft parts are very 

 remarkable, and are, to my mind, quite as worthy to be regarded 

 as having a specific signification as modifications in plumage. 



Barbets {Capitonidce). 



In these gaudy birds the plumage of the sexes is much alike, but 

 the form of the bill differs. 



Blue-cheeked Barbet (Cyanops asiatica). 



In the female the bill is a trifle shorter and broader, and its 

 culmen, viewed in profile, is seen to be slightly more arched than in 

 the male. She appears to be rather larger than her mate, but with 

 shorter wing and tail. 



Hodgson's Barbet (Cyanops linea(a). 



The size of both sexes in this bird appears to vary greatly, but the 

 female has decidedly the broader bill, 



