616 



THE DESCENT OF MAN 



Mr. Swinhoe '• found the females before the close of the 

 summer associated in flocks, as occurs with the females of 

 the Tarnix. 



The females of Phalaropus fulicarius and P. hyperboretts 

 are larger, and in their summer plumage "more gayly at- 

 tired than the males." But the difference in color between 

 the sexes is far from conspicuous. According to Prof. 

 Steenstrup, the male alone of P. fulicarius ^nnderta^ea the 

 duty of incubation ; this is likewise shown by the state of 

 his breast feathers during the breeding season. The female 

 of the dotterel plover {Eudromias morinellua) is larger than 

 the male, and has the red and black tints on the lower sur- 

 face, the white crescent on the breast, and the stripes over 

 the eyes, more strongly pronounced. The male also takes 

 at least a share in hatching the eggs; but the female like- 

 wise attends to the young." I have not been able to dis- 

 cover whether with these species the young resemble the 

 adult males more closely than the adult females; for 

 the comparison is somewhat difficult to make on account 

 of the double moult. 



Turning now to the Ostrich order: The male of the com- 

 mon cassowary {Casuarius galeatus)y<fo\x\di be thought by any 

 one to be the female, from his smaller size and from the ap- 

 pendages and naked skin about his head being much less 

 brightly colored; and I am informed by Mr. Bartlett that 

 in the Zoological Gardens it is certainly the male alone 

 who sits on the eggs and takes care of the young." The 



" "Ibis," 1866, p. 298. 



'" For theae several statements, see Mr. Gtould's "Birds of Great Britain." 

 Prof. Newton informs me that he has long been convinced, from his own 

 observations and from those of others, that the males of the above-named 

 species take either the whole or a large share of the duties of incubation, and 

 that they "show much greater devotion toward their young, when in danger, 

 than do the females." So it is, as he informs me, with Limosa lapponica and 

 some few other Waders, in which the females are larger and have more strongly 

 contrasted colors than the males. 



'^ The natives of Ceram (Wallace, "Malay Archipelago," vol. ii. p. 150) 

 assert that the male and female sit alternately on the eggs; but this assertion, 

 as Mr. Bartlett (Mnks, may be accounted for by the female visiting the nest to 

 Jay her eggs. 



