BIRDS— COLOR AND NIDIFICATION. 451 



tioE to the female. Thus all the species in the splendid group 

 of the Trogons build in holes; and Mr. Gould gives figures'' of 

 both sexes of twenty-five species, in all of which, with one partial 

 exception, the sexes differ sometimes slightly, sometimes con- 

 spicuously, in color, — the males being always finer than the fe- 

 males, though the latter are likewise beautiful. All the species 

 of kingfishers build in holes, and with most of the species the 

 sexes are equally brilliant, and thus far Mr. Wallace's rule holds 

 good; but in some of the Australian species the colors of the 

 females are rather less vivid than those of the male; and in one 

 splendidly-colored species, the sexes differ so much that they 

 were at first thought to be specifically distinct.^' Mr. R. B. Sharpe, 

 who has especially studied this group, has shown me some Amer- 

 ican species (Oeryle) in which the breast of the male is belted 

 with black. Again, in Carolneutes, the difference between the 

 sexes is conspicuous: in the male the upper surface is dull-blue 

 banded with black, the lower surface being partly fawn-colored, 

 and there is much red about the head; in the female the upper 

 surface is reddish-brown banded with black, and the lower sur- 

 face white with black markings. It is an interesting fact, as 

 showing how the same peculiar style of sexual coloring often 

 characterizes allied forms, that in three species of Dacelo the 

 male differs from the female only in the tail being dull-blue banded 

 with black, whilst that of the female is brown with blackish 

 bars; so that here the tail differs in color in the two sexes in 

 exactly the same manner as the whole upper surface in the two 

 sexes of Carcineutes. 



With parrots, which likewise build in holes, we find analogous 

 cases: in most of these species both sexes are brilliantly colored 

 and indistinguishable, but in not a few species the males are 

 colored rather more vividly than the females, or even very differ- 

 ently from them. Thus, besides other strongly-marked differ- 

 ences, the whole under surface of the male King Lory (Apros- 

 mictus scapulatus) is scarlet, whilst the throat and chest of the 

 female is green tinged with red: In the Buphema splendida there 

 is a similar difference, the face and wing-coverts moreover of 

 the female being of a paler blue than in the male.'" In the family 

 of the tits (Parinse), which build concealed nests, the female of 

 our common blue tomtit (Parus caeruleus) is "much less brightly 



21 See his 'Monograph of the Trogonidae,' first edition. 



2= Namely Cyanalcyon. Gould's 'Handbook to the Birds of Australia,' 

 vol. i. p. 133; see, also, pp. 130, 136. 



2' Every gradation of difference between the sexes may be followed 

 in the parrots of Australia. See Gould's 'Handbook' &c., vol. ii. 

 pp. 14-102, 



