C «AP. XVIII. 
ORNAMENTAL COLOURS. 
287 
° c elot ( Felis pardalis), however, offers an exception, for 
^ le colours of the female, compared with those of the 
l^le, are “moms apparentes, le fauve etant plus terne, 
t blanc moins pur, les raies avant moius de largeur 
e t les taehes moins de diametre .” 22 The sexes of 
^ le allied FeUs mitis also differ, but even in a less 
degree, the general hues of the female being rather 
P a ler than in the male, with the spots less black. 
Jlte marine Carnivora or Beals, on the other hand, 
s 01 ne times differ considerably in colour, and they pre- 
Sf ; Tl t, as we have already seen, other remarkable sexual 
differences. Thus the male of the Otaria nigrescens 
°i the southern hemisphere is of a rich brown shade 
above; whilst the female, who acquires her adult tints 
eai ’lier 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 Phoea groenlandica 
ls tawny grey, with a curious saddle-shaped dark mark 
0Q the back ; the female is much smaller, and has a 
v ®*y different appearance, being “dull white or yellow- 
tsh straw-colour, with a tawny hue on the back the 
~ °ung at first are pure white, and can “ hardly be dis- 
' tinguished among the icy hummocks and snow, their 
colour thus acting as a protection .” 23 
With Ruminants sexual differences of colour occur 
t^ore commonly than in any other order. A difference 
this kind is general with the Strepsicerene antelopes ; 
the male nilghau ( Portax picta j is bluish-grey 
at| d much darker than the female, with the square white 
Patch on the throat, the white marks on the fetlocks, 
." Desmarest, 1 Mamraalngie,’ 1820, p. 223. On Feliti mitie, Jtezagor, 
Dl ‘'- s. 194. 
p^Dr. Murie on the Otaria, ‘Proc. Zool. Soc.’ 1863, p. 108. Hr. 
( . k j Drown, on the P. groenlandica , ibid. 1868, p. 417. See also on the 
0l °urs of seals, Desmarest, ibid. p. 213, 249, 
