I have got
one capital case (genus forgotten) of an [Australian] bird in which the
female has long-tailed plumes and which consequently builds a different
nest from all her allies.[60] With respect to certain female birds being
more brightly coloured than the males, and the latter incubating, I have
gone a little into the subject and cannot say that I am fully satisfied.
I remember mentioning to you the case of Rhynchaea, but its nesting seems
unknown. In some other cases the difference in brightness seemed to me
hardly sufficiently accounted for by the principle of protection. At the
Falkland Islands there is a carrion hawk in which the female (as I
ascertained by dissection) is the brightest coloured, and I doubt
whether protection will here apply; but I wrote several months ago to
the Falklands to make inquiries. The conclusion to which I have been
leaning is that in some of these abnormal cases the colour happened to
vary in the female alone, and was transmitted to females alone, and that
her variations have been selected through the admiration of the male.
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