126 
NATURAL SELECTION 
VI 
12. Parrots (Psittaci). In this great tribe, adorned with 
the most brilliant and varied colours, the rule is that the 
sexes are precisely alike, and this is the case in the most 
gorgeous families, the lories, the cockatoos, and the macaws ; 
but in some there is a sexual difference of colour to a 
slight extent. All build in holes, mostly in trees, but some- 
times in the ground, or in white ants 5 nests. In the single 
case in which the nest is exposed, that of the Australian 
ground parrot, Pezoporus formosus, the bird has lost the gay 
colouring of its allies, and is clothed in sombre and completely 
protective tints of dusky green and black. 
13. Gapers (Eurylsemidse). In these beautiful Eastern 
birds, somewhat allied to the American chatterers, the sexes 
are exactly alike, and are adorned with the most gay and con- 
spicuous markings. The nest is a woven structure, covered over , 
and suspended from the extremities of branches over water. 
14. Pardalotus (Ampelidse). In these Australian birds 
the females differ from the males, but are often very con- 
spicuous, having brightly -spotted heads. Their nests are 
sometimes dome shaped, sometimes in holes of trees, or in 
burrows in the ground. 
1 5. Tits (Paridse). These little birds are always pretty, and 
many (especially among the Indian species) are very conspicuous. 
They always have the sexes alike, a circumstance very unusual 
among the smaller gaily-coloured birds of our own country. 
The nest is always covered over or concealed in a hole. 
16. Nuthatches (Sitta). Often very pretty birds, the 
sexes alike, and the nest in a hole. 
17. (Sittella). The female of these Australian nut- 
hatches is often the most conspicuous, being white and black 
marked. The nest is, according to Gould, “ completely con- 
cealed among upright twigs connected together.” 
18. Creepers (Climacteris). In these Australian creepers 
the sexes are alike, or the female most conspicuous, and the 
nest is in a hole of a tree. 
19. Estrelda, Amadina. In these genera of Eastern and 
Australian finches the females, although more or less different 
from the males, are still very conspicuous, having a red rump, 
or being white spotted. They differ from most others of the 
family in building domed nests. 
