468 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



row, in which the male differs much from the female, but does not 

 exhibit any bright tints. No one probably will dispute that many 

 gallinaceous birds which live on the open ground, have acquired 

 their present colors, at least in part, for the sake of protection. 

 We know how well they are thus concealed; we know that 

 ptarmigans, whilst changing from their winter to their summer 

 plumage, both of which are protective, suffer greatly from birds 

 of prey. But can we believe that the very slight differences in 

 tints and markings between, for instance, the female black-grouBe 

 and red-grouse serve as a protection? Are partridges, as they are 

 now colored, better protected than if they had resembled quails? 

 Do the slight differences between the females of the common 

 pheasant, the Japan and gold pheasants, serve as a protection, 

 or might not their plumages have been interchanged with im- 

 punity? From what Mr. Wallace has observed of the habits of 

 certain gallinaceous birds in the East, he thinks that such slight 

 differences are beneficial. For myself, I will only say that I 

 am not convinced. 



Formerly when I was inclined to lay much stress on protection 

 as accounting for the duller colors of female birds, it occurred 

 to me that possibly both sexes and the young might aboriginally 

 have been equally bright colored; but that subsequently, the 

 females from the danger incurred during incubation, and the 

 young from being inexperienced, had been rendered dull as a 

 protection. But this view is not supported by any evidence, 

 and is not probable; for we thus in imagination expose during 

 past times the females and the young to danger, from which it 

 has subsequently been necessary to shield their modified de- 

 scendants. We have, also, to reduce, through a gradual process 

 of selection, the females and the young to almost exactly the 

 same tints and markings, and to transmit them to the correspond- 

 ing sex and period of life. On the supposition that the females 

 and the young have partaken during each stage of the process 

 of modification of a tendency to be as brightly colored as the 

 males, it is also a somewhat strange fact that the females have 

 never been rendered dull-colored without the young participating 

 in the same change; for there are no instances, as far as I can 

 discover, of species with the females dull and the young bright 

 colored. A partial exception, however, is offered by the young 

 of certain woodpeckers, for they have "the whole upper part of 

 "the head tinged with red," which afterwards either decreases 

 Into a mere circular red line in the adults of both sexes, or quite 

 disappears in the adult females.'- 



" Audubon, 'Ornith. Biography,' vol. i. p. 193. Macgillivray, 'Hist. 

 Brit. Birds,' vol. iii. p. 85. See also the case before given ot Indopicus 

 carlotta. 



