Page:Darwinism by Alfred Wallace 1889.djvu/303

 not require special protective coloration, such as many of the birds of prey, the larger waders, and the oceanic birds.

There are a few very curious cases in which the female bird is actually more brilliant than the male, and which yet have open nests. Such are the dotterel (Eudromias morinellus), several species of phalarope, an Australian creeper (Climacteris erythropus), and a few others; but in every one of these cases the relation of the sexes in regard to nidification is reversed, the male performing the duties of incubation, while the female is the stronger and more pugnacious. This curious case, therefore, quite accords with the general law of coloration.

We may consider a few of the cases of sexual colouring of other classes of vertebrates, as given by Mr. Darwin. In fishes, though the sexes are usually alike, there are several species in which the males are more brightly coloured, and have more elongated fins, spines, or other appendages, and in some few cases the colours are decidedly different. The males often fight together, and are altogether more vivacious and excitable than the females during the breeding season; and with this we may connect a greater intensity of coloration.

In frogs and toads the colours are usually alike, or a little more intense in the males, and the same may be said of most snakes. It is in lizards that we first meet with considerable sexual differences, many of the species having gular pouches, frills, dorsal crests, or horns, either confined to the males, or more developed in them than in the females, and these ornaments are often brightly coloured. In most cases, however, the tints of lizards are protective, the male being usually a little more intense in coloration; and the difference in extreme cases may be partly due to the need of protection for the female, which, when laden with eggs, must be less active and less able to escape from enemies than the male, and may, therefore, have retained more protective colours, as so many insects and birds have certainly done.

In mammalia there is often a somewhat greater intensity