Page:Descent of Man 1875.djvu/365

Rh beneath, which in the spring becomes a rich bright orange, marked everywhere with round dark spots." The edge of the crest also is then tipped with bright red or violet. The female is usually of a yellowish-brown colour with scattered brown dots, and the lower surface is often quite plain. The young are obscurely tinted. The ova are fertilised during the act of deposition, and are not subsequently tended by either parent. We may therefore conclude that the males have acquired their strongly-marked colours and ornamental appendages through sexual selection; these being transmitted either to the male offspring alone, or to both sexes.

Anura or Butrachia.—With many frogs and toads the colours evidently serve as a protection, such as the bright green tints of tree-frogs and the obscure mottled shades of many terrestrial species. The most conspicuously-coloured toad which I ever saw, the Phryniscus nigricans, had the whole upper surface of the body as black as ink, with the soles of the feet and parts of the abdomen spotted with the brightest vermilion. It crawled about the bare sandy or open grassy plains of La Plata under a scorching sun, and could not fail to catch the eye of every passing creature. These colours are probably beneficial by making this animal known to all birds of prey as a nauseous mouthful.

In Nicaragua there is a little frog "dressed in a bright livery of red and blue" which does not conceal itself like most other species, but hops about during the daytime, and Mr. Belt says that as soon as he saw its happy sense of security, he felt sure that it was uneatable. After several trials he succeeded in tempting a young duck to snatch up a young one, but it was instantly rejected; and the duck "went about jerking its head, as if trying to throw off some unpleasant taste."

With respect to sexual differences of colour. Dr. Günther does not know of any striking instance either with frogs or toads; yet he can often distinguish the male from the female, by the tints of the former being a little more intense. Nor does he know of any striking difference in external structure between the sexes, excepting the prominences which become developed during the breeding-season on the front-legs of the male, by which he is enabled to hold the female. It is surprising that