OCR Text |
Show '288 SEXUAL SELECT! ON ·· MAMMALS. ]'Al'T JJ. 11 much more disand the blade spots on tl~e ~a.rs, a . ~s the crests and tinct. vVe have seen t.hat m t usdspeclH,ped in the malo n 'se more eve 0 tnfts of hair are 1 ceWI The male, as I am than in the hornless fema~ei t shedding his hair, informed by Mr. Blyth, witdlOU · the breeding-sea- . 11 b es darker urmg periodlca y ecom b distinrruished from ~oung son. young males cannolt e ths old. and If the females until above twe ve . mon . d he ;lcYer accordmale is emasculated before this peno 1' . The' import-l 't chanrres co om. ing to the same aut IOn y, r t" ~tive of sexunl colouring, :wee of this latter fact, as c Islm . 24 that neither the red b · when we 1ea1 . . . becomes o vwus, . t . o"t of' the Vn·giman h blue wm e1-c ... snmmer-coat nor t e 1 tion With most or <leer is at all affected by emascu ~ f. Trarreln.l~hus the all of the highly-ornamc~1:e~~;:~~:: ~emale~, and their males are d~rker than. t full , developed. In the male ~rests of hmr are moie l ) the Derbyan Eland, the of that magnificent ~ut~ o~:~k mueh ulaekcr, and the body is redder, ~he w lO ~"1tes these colours, broader, white band whiCh sepa l C e Eland also the male than in the female. In t le apl 25 ' . . h 1 d + r than the fema e. IS shg t y ~r '-e k b ·k (A bezoartica), which belongs In the Ind1an Blac ... - uc · ale is very dark, almost to another tribe of antelopes, thelm . £ n coloured vY e h 'l t tb hornless fcma e IS aw - . Llack.; w ~ s ~· Mr. Bl th informs me, an exact~y have m thl~ spe~Ies, as s with ~he Portax picta, namely m parallel sene~ of. facts, al . cr colour during the breedthe male penodically c Iangmo "J~~ C ato o,r.n ''l'rallS. Ottawa Aca d . o f Nat . S' ciences,' lS. GR, p. ·1. , ·n Brit. 1\ius.' part iii. 1852, P· ~34-1~2 ; 2~ Dr. Gray, 'Uat. of Mamm. 1 n erie of E.uowslcy,' m whJCh also Dr. Grny, 'O_leaning.s from t~: ~r:a:g dcrbianus : sec the text. on there is a splcndHl clr:twmg ~l l 0 eas canna) sec Andrew Simth, 'frao-elaphus. For the C'apc < andc i2 r There ar~ also many of these "' f S Africa ' pl. 4l nn · . Zoollogy ? tll.e Zoolo~ical Society's Gardens. ~nto opes m o < "IIAP. -xnu. OHNAl\IENTAL COLOUHS. 289 rng season, in the effects of emasculation on this change, and in the young of both sexes being undistinguishnblc from each other. In tho Antilope niger the male is black, the female as well as the young being 'brown; iu A. sing-sing the male is much bdghter coloured than the ·hornless female, and his chest and belly are blacker; in the male A. caama, the marks and lines which occur on various parts of tho uody are ulack instead of as in the female brown; in the brindled gnu (A. gorgon) "the colours of the male are nearly the same as those "' of the female, only deeper and of a brighter hue." 26 Other aualogous cases could be added. The Banteng bull (Bos sondaicus) of the Malayan -archipelago is ·almost black, with white legs and buttocks ; the cow is of a bright dun, as are the young males until about the age of three years, when they rapidly change colour. The emasculated bull reverts to the colour of the female. The female Kemas goat is paler, and the female Cap?'a mgagrus is said to be more uniformly tinted than their respective males. Deer rarely present any sexual differences in colour. Judge Caton, however, informs me that "·ith the males ·Of the vVapiti deer ( Ce?'V'US Canadensis) the neck, belly, and logs are much darker than the same parts in the female; but during the winter the darker tints gradually fi:tde away and disappear. I may here mention that Judge ·Caton has in his park three races of the Virginian deer, which differ slightly in colour, but the differences are almost exclusively confined to the blno 2a On tho Ant. niger, see 'Proc. Zool. Soc.' 1850, p. 133. With rc~ o;poct to an allied specie , in which there is an equal sexunl difference i11 colour, soc Sir K Baker,' 'l'ho Albert Nyanzn,' 18GG, vol. ii. p. 327. :J."or tho A. sina·sing, Gray, 'Cat. 13. l\Ius.' p. 100. Dcsmnrcst, '1\Inm· .nlftlogie,' p. ·HiS, on the A. caetllla. An<lrcw Rmith, 'Zoology of H. Afi·ica,' on the Gnu . VOL. II. U |