with the females of the Turnix.
The females of Phalaropus fulicarius and P. hyperboreus are larger, and
in their summer plumage more gaily attired than the males. But the
difference in colour between the sexes is far from conspicuous.
According to Professor Steenstrup, the male alone of P. fulicarius
undertakes the duty of incubation; this is likewise shewn by the state
of his breast-feathers during the breeding-season. The female of the
dotterel plover (Eudromias morinellus) is larger than the male, and has
the red and black tints on the lower surface, the white crescent on the
breast, and the stripes over the eyes, more strongly pronounced. The
male also takes at least a share in hatching the eggs; but the female
likewise attends to the young. (20. For these several statements, see
Mr. Gould s Birds of Great Britain. Prof. Newton informs me that he
has long been convinced, from his own observations and from those of
others, that the males of the above-named species take either the whole
or a large share of the duties of incubation, and that they shew much
greater devotion towards their young, when in danger, than do the
females. So it is, as he informs me, with Limosa lapponica and some
few other Waders, in which the females are larger and have more
strongly contrasted colours than the males.) I have not been able to
discover whether with these species the young resemble the adult males
more closely than the adult females; for the comparison is somewhat
difficult to make on account of the double moult.
Turning now to the ostrich Order: the male of the common cassowary
(Casuarius galeatus) would be thought by any one to be the female, from
his smaller size and from the appendages and naked skin about his head
being much less brightly coloured; and I am informed by Mr. Bartlett
that in the Zoological Gardens, it is certainly the male alone who sits
on the eggs and takes care of the young. (21. The natives of Ceram
(Wallace, Malay Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 150) assert that the male
and female sit alternately on the eggs; but this assertion, as Mr.
Bartlett thinks, may be accounted for by the female visiting the nest
to lay her eggs.) The female is said by Mr. T.W. Wood (22. The
Student, April 1870, p. 124.) to exhibit during the breeding-season a
most pugnacious disposition; and her wattles then become enlarged and
more brilliantly coloured. So again the female of one of the emus
(Dromoeus irroratus) is considerably larger than the male, and she
possesses a slight top-knot, but is otherwise indistinguishable in
501