RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS. 115 
that in most if not all these cases the males sit upon 
the eggs; so that this exception to the usual rule 
almost demonstrates that it is because the process of 
incubation is at once very important and very dan- 
gerous, that the protection of obscure colouring is 
developed. The most striking example is that of the 
gray phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius). When in 
winter plumage, the sexes of this bird are alike in 
colouration, but in summer the female is much the 
most conspicuous, having a black head, dark wings, 
and reddish-brown back, while the male is nearly 
uniform brown, with dusky spots. Mr. Gould in his 
“Birds of Great Britain” figures the two sexes in 
both winter and summer plumage, and remarks on 
the strange peculiarity of the usual colours of the two 
sexes being reversed, and also on the still more curious 
fact that the “‘male alone sits on the eggs,’ which 
are deposited on the bare ground. In another British 
bird, the dotterell, the female is also larger and more 
brightly-coloured than the male; and it seems to be 
proved that the males assist in incubation even if they 
do not perform-it entirely, for Mr. Gould tells us, 
‘‘that they have been shot with the breast bare of 
feathers, caused by sitting on the eggs.” The small 
quail-like birds forming the genus Turnix have also 
generally large and bright-coloured females, and we 
are told by Mr. Jerdon in his “ Birds of India” that 
“the natives report that during the breeding season 
the females desert their eggs and associate in flocks 
while the males are employed in hatching the eggs.” 
12 
