I know that _Gallus bankiva_ frequents drier and more open
situations than _Pavo muticus_, which in Java is found among grassy and
leafy vegetation corresponding with the colours of the two females. So
the Argus pheasants, male and female, are, I feel sure, protected by
their tints corresponding to dead leaves of the dry lofty forests in
which they dwell; and the female of the gorgeous fire-back pheasant,
_Lophura viellottii_, is of a very similar rich brown colour.
These and many other colours of female birds seem to me exactly
analogous to the colours of _both sexes_ in such groups as the snipes,
woodcocks, plovers, ptarmigan, desert birds, Arctic animals, greenbirds.
[The second page of this letter has been torn off. This letter and that
of September 27 appear both to answer the same letter from Darwin. The
last page of this or of another letter was placed with it in the
portfolio of letters; it is now given.]
I am sorry to find that our difference of opinion on this point is a
source of anxiety to you.
Pray do not let it be so. The truth will come out at last, and our
difference may be the means of setting others to work who may set us
both right.
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