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The Descent of Man

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cailzie, blackcock, black scoter-duck (Oidemia),<br />

and even with one <strong>of</strong> the birds <strong>of</strong> paradise<br />

(Lophorina atra), the males alone are black,<br />

whilst the females are brown or mottled; and<br />

there can hardly be a doubt that blackness in<br />

these cases has been a sexually selected character.<br />

<strong>The</strong>refore it is in some degree probable that<br />

the complete or partial blackness <strong>of</strong> both sexes<br />

in such birds as crows, certain cockatoos,<br />

storks, and swans, and many marine birds, is<br />

likewise the result <strong>of</strong> sexual selection, accompanied<br />

by equal transmission to both sexes; for<br />

blackness can hardly serve in any case as a protection.<br />

With several birds, in which the male<br />

alone is black, and in others in which both<br />

sexes are black, the beak or skin about the head<br />

is brightly coloured, and the contrast thus afforded<br />

adds much to their beauty; we see this<br />

in the bright yellow beak <strong>of</strong> the male blackbird,<br />

in the crimson skin over the eyes <strong>of</strong> the blackcock<br />

and capercailzie, in the brightly and variously<br />

coloured beak <strong>of</strong> the scoter-drake (Oi-

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