Cb ap. viii. 
SEXUAL SELECTION. 
2G9 
a Ud with the bullfinch which is said to pair for life. So 
'1 is, as I am informed by Mr. Wallace, with the Chat- 
terers or Cotingid® of South America, and numerous 
other birds. In several groups I have not been able to 
discover whether the species are polygamous or mono- 
Satnous. Lesson says that birds ot paradise, so re- 
markable for their sexual differences, are polygamous, 
Wt Mr. Wallace doubts whether he had sufficient evi- 
dence. Mr. Salvin informs me that he has been led 
to believe that humming-birds are polygamous. The 
!fl ale widow-bird, remarkable for his caudal plumes, 
°«rtainly seems to be a polygamist* I have been 
assured by Mr. Jenner Weir and by others, that three 
s tarling S not rarely frequent the same nest ; but whether 
this is° a case of polygamy or polyandry has not been 
Ascertained. 
The Gallinace® present almost as strongly marked 
dxual differences as birds of paradise or humming- 
birds, and many of the species are, as is well known, 
P°lygamous ; others being strictly monogamous. AY hat 
a contrast is presented between the sexes of the poly- 
gamous peacock or pheasant, and the monogamous 
guinea-fowl or partridge ! Many similar cases could 
1)6 given, as in the grouse tribe, in which the males 
the polygamous capercailzie and black-cock differ 
greatly fronTthe females ; whilst the sexes of the mono- 
Samous red grouse and ptarmigan differ very little. 
'Wongst the Cursores, no great number ot species 
°&er strongly - marked sexual differences, except the 
bustards, and the great bustard ( Otis tarda), is said to 
, S ‘ The II, is,’ vol. iii. 1861, v 1»3, on the Progno Widow-bird. See 
als ° 0:1 the Vidua axillaris, ibid. vol. ii. I860, p. 211. On the. poly- 
ga »iy of the Capercailzie and Great Bustard, see L. Lloyd, ‘ Game Birds 
Sweden,’ 1807, p. 19, and 182. Montagu and Selby speak of the 
Ufack Grouse as polygamous and of the Red Grouse as monogamous. 
