CLASS II. _When the adult female is more conspicuous than the adult male, the young of both sexes in their first plumage resemble the adult male._—This class is exactly the reverse of the last, for the females are here more brightly coloured or more conspicuous than the males; and the young, as far as they are known, resemble the adult males instead of the adult females. But the difference between the sexes is never nearly so great as occurs with many birds in the first class, and the cases are comparatively rare. Mr. Wallace who first called attention to the singular relation which exists between the less bright colours of the males and their performing the duties of incubation, lays great stress on this point,[241] as a crucial test that obscure colours have been acquired for the sake of protection during the period of nesting. A different view seems to me more probable. As the cases are curious and not numerous, I will briefly give all that I have been able to find. In one section of the genus Turnix, quail-like birds, the female is invariably larger than the male (being nearly twice as large in one of the Australian species) and this is an unusual circumstance with the Gallinaceæ. In most of the species the female is more distinctly coloured and brighter than the male,[242] but in some few species the sexes are alike. In _Turnix taigoor_ of India the male “wants the black on the throat and neck, and the whole tone of the plumage is lighter and less pronounced than that of the female.” The female appears to be more vociferous, and is certainly much more pugnacious than the male; so that the females and not the males are often kept by the natives for fighting, like game-cocks. As male birds are exposed by the English bird-catchers for a decoy near a trap, in order to catch other males by exciting their rivalry, so the females of this Turnix are employed in India. When thus exposed the females soon begin their “loud purring call, which can be heard a long way off, and any females within ear-shot run rapidly to the spot, and commence fighting with the caged bird.” In this way from twelve to twenty birds, all breeding-females, may be caught in the course of a single day. The natives assert that the females after laying their eggs associate in flocks, and leave the males to sit on them. There is no reason to doubt the truth of this assertion, which is supported by some observations made in China by Mr. Swinhoe.[243] Mr. Blyth believes, that the young of both sexes resemble the adult male. [Illustration: Fig. 60. Rhynchæa capensis (from Brehm).]