Note 253 — Chapter XVI

For the Milvago, see ‘Zoology of the Voyage of the “Beagle,”’ Birds, 1841, p. 16. For the Climacteris and nightjar (Eurostopodus), see Gould’s ‘Handbook of the Birds of Australia,’ vol. i. p. 602 and 97. The New Zealand shieldrake (Tadorna variegata) offers a quite anomalous case: the head of the female is pure white, and her back is redder than that of the male; the head of the male is of a rich dark bronzed colour, and his back is clothed with finely pencilled slate-coloured feathers, so that he may altogether be considered as the more beautiful of the two. He is larger and more pugnacious than the female, and does not sit on the eggs. So that in all these respects this species comes under our first class of cases; but Mr. Sclater (‘Proc. Zool. Soc.’ 1866, p. 150) was much surprised to observe that the young of both sexes, when about three months old, resembled in their dark heads and necks the adult males, instead of the adult females; so that it would appear in this case that the females have been modified, whilst the males and the young have retained a former state of plumage.