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in PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS 81are distinguished by unusual brilliancy of plumage, thefemales are much more obscure, and often remarkably plaincoloured.The exceptions are such as eminently to prove therule, for in most cases we can see a very good reason forthem. In particular, there are a few instances among wadingand gallinaceous birds in which the female has decidedlymore brilliant colours than the male ;but it is a most curiousand interesting fact that in most if not all these cases themales situpon the eggs so that this ; exception to the usualrule almost demonstrates that it is because the process ofincubation is at once very important and very dangerous,that the protection of obscure colouring is developed. Themost striking exampleis that of the gray phalarope (Phalaropusfulicarius). When in winter plumage, the sexes of thisbird are alike in coloration, but in summer the female ismuch the most conspicuous, having a black head, dark wings,and reddish-brown back, while the male is nearly uniformbrown, with dusky spots. Mr. Gould in his Birds of GreatBritain figures the two sexes in both winter and summerplumage, and remarks on the strange peculiarity of the usualcolours of the two sexes being reversed, and also on the stillmore curious fact that the "male alone sits on the eggs,"which are deposited on the bare ground. In another Britishbird, the dotterell, the female is also larger and more brightlycoloured than the male ;and it seems to be proved that themales assist in incubation even ifthey do not perform itentirely, for Mr. Gould tells us "that they have been shotwith the breast bare of feathers, caused by sitting on theeggs." The small quail-like birds forming the genus Turnixhave also generally large and bright-coloured females, and weare told by Mr. Jerdon in his Birds of India that " the nativesreport that during the breeding season the females deserttheir eggs and associate in flocks while the males are employedin hatching the eggs." It is also an ascertained fact that thefemales are more bold and pugnacious than the males. Afurther confirmation of this view is to be found in the fact(not hitherto noticed) that in a large majority of the cases inwhich bright colours exist in both sexes incubation takesplace in a dark hole or in a dome -shaped nest. Femalekingfishers are often equally brilliant with the male, and theyG