Chap. XVIII. 
OEXAMENTAL COLOURS. 
287 
ocelot {Felis pardalis), however, offers an exception, for 
the colours of the female, compared with those of the 
male, are moins apparentes, le fauve etant plus terne,, 
le blanc moins pur, les raies ayant moins de largeur 
et les taches moins de diametre.”^^ The sexes of 
the allied Felis mitis also differ, but even in a less 
degree, the general hues of the female being rather 
paler than in the male, with the spots less black. 
The marine Carnivora or Seals, on the other hand, 
sometimes differ considerably in colour, and they pre- 
sent, as we have already seen, other remarkable sexual 
differences. Thus the male of the Otaria nigrescens 
of the southern hemisphere is of a rich brown shade 
above ; whilst the female, who acquires her adult tints 
earlier in life than the male, is dark-grey above, the 
young of both sexes being of a very deep chocolate 
colour. The male of the northern Phoca groenlandica 
is tawny grey, with a curious saddle-shaped dark mark 
on the back ; the female is much smaller, and has a 
very different appearance, being dull white or yellow- 
ish straw-colour, with a tawny hue on the back ; ” the 
young at first are pure white, and can hardly be dis- 
tinguished among the icy hummocks and snow, their 
colour thus acting as a protection.” 
With Euminants sexual differences of colour occur 
more commonly than in any other order. A difference 
of this kind is general with the Strepsicerene antelopes ; 
thus the male nilghau (Poriax jpicta) is bluish-grey 
and much darker than the female, with the square white 
patch on the throat, the white marks on the fetlocks. 
22 Desmarest, ‘ Mammalogie,’ 1820, p. 223. On Felis mitis, Eengger, 
ibid. s. 194. 
2^ Dr. Murie on the Otaria, ‘Proc. Zool. Soc.’ 1869, p. 108. Mr. 
E. Brown, on the P. groenlandica, ibid. 1868, p. 417. See also on tho 
colours of seals, Desmarest, ibid. p. 243, 249. 
