174 
SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. 
Part II. 
colouring often characterises 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 colour in the two sexes in exactly 
the same manner as the whole upper surface in the 
sexes of Carcineutes. 
With parrots, which likewise build in holes, we find 
analogous cases : in most of the species both sexes are 
brilliantly coloured and undistinguishable, but in not a 
few species the males are coloured rather more vividly 
than the females, or even very differently from them. 
Thus, besides other strongly-marked differences, the 
whole under surface of the male King Lory (Aprosmictus 
sca^ulatus) is scarlet, whilst the throat and chest of the 
female is green tinged with red : in the Euphema splen- 
dida 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 cseruleus) is ^‘much less brightly 
coloured” than the male; and in the magnificent Sultan 
yellow tit of India the difference is greater.^^ 
Again in the great group of the woodpeckers,^^ the 
sexes are generally nearly alike, but in the Mega- 
picus validus all those parts of the head, neck, and 
breast, which are crimson in the male are pale brown 
in the female. As in several woodpeckers the head of 
the male is bright crimson, whilst that of the female is 
22 Every gradation of difference between the sexes may be followed in 
the parrots of Australia. See Gould’s ‘ Handbook/ &c., vol. ii. p. 14-102. 
23 Macgillivray’s ‘ British Birds/ vol. ii. p. 433. Jerdon, ‘ Birds of 
India/ vol. ii. p. 282. 
2^1 All the following facts are taken from M. Malherbe’s magnificent 
^ Monographie des Picidees/ 1861. 
I 
