I find it most
difficult, but not, I think, impossible, to see how, for instance, a few
red feathers appearing on the head of a male bird, and which _are at
first transmitted to both sexes_, could come to be transmitted to males
alone;[72] but I have no difficulty in making the whole head red if the
few red feathers in the male from the first tended to be sexually
transmitted. I am quite willing to admit that the female may have been
modified, either at the same time or subsequently, for protection, by
the accumulation of variations limited in their transmission to the
female sex. I owe to your writings the consideration of this latter
point. But I cannot yet persuade myself that females _alone_ have often
been modified for protection. Should you grudge the trouble briefly to
tell me whether you believe that the plainer head and less bright
_colours_ of [female symbol][73] chaffinch, the less red on the head and
less clean colours of [female symbol] goldfinch, the much less red on
breast of [female symbol] bullfinch, the paler crest of goldencrest
wren, etc., have been acquired by them for protection? I cannot think
so; any more than I can that the considerable differences between
[female symbol] and [male symbol] house-sparrow, or much greater
brightness of [male symbol] _Parus caeruleus_ (both of which build under
cover) than of [female symbol] Parus are related to protection.
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