of the female. The female appears to be noisier, and is certainly much
more pugnacious than the male; so that the females and not the males
are often kept by the natives for fighting, like game-cocks. As male
birds are exposed by the English bird-catchers for a decoy near a trap,
in order to catch other males by exciting their rivalry, so the females
of this Turnix are employed in India. When thus exposed the females
soon begin their loud purring call, which can be heard a long way off,
and any females within ear-shot run rapidly to the spot, and commence
fighting with the caged bird. In this way from twelve to twenty birds,
all breeding females, may be caught in the course of a single day. The
natives assert that the females after laying their eggs associate in
flocks, and leave the males to sit on them. There is no reason to doubt
the truth of this assertion, which is supported by some observations
made in China by Mr. Swinhoe. (15. Jerdon, Birds of India, vol. iii.
p. 596. Mr. Swinhoe, in Ibis, 1865, p. 542; 1866, pp. 131, 405.) Mr.
Blyth believes, that the young of both sexes resemble the adult male.
[Fig. 62. Rhynchaea capensis (from Brehm).]
The females of the three species of Painted Snipes (Rhynchaea, Fig. 62)
are not only larger but much more richly coloured than the males.
(16. Jerdon, Birds of India, vol. iii. p. 677.) With all other birds
in which the trachea differs in structure in the two sexes it is more
developed and complex in the male than in the female; but in the
Rhynchaea australis it is simple in the male, whilst in the female it
makes four distinct convolutions before entering the lungs. (17.
Gould s Handbook to the Birds of Australia, vol. ii. p. 275.) The
female therefore of this species has acquired an eminently masculine
character. Mr. Blyth ascertained, by examining many specimens, that the
trachea is not convoluted in either sex of R. bengalensis, which
species resembles R. australis so closely, that it can hardly be
distinguished except by its shorter toes. This fact is another striking
instance of the law that secondary sexual characters are often widely
different in closely-allied forms, though it is a very rare
circumstance when such differences relate to the female sex. The young
of both sexes of R. bengalensis in their first plumage are said to
resemble the mature male. (18. The Indian Field, Sept. 1858, p. 3.)
There is also reason to believe that the male undertakes the duty of
incubation, for Mr. Swinhoe (19. Ibis, 1866, p. 298.) found the
females before the close of the summer associated in flocks, as occurs
500