Abstract
ALLOW me to assure Mr. Howorth that I have no theory to maintain. I simply called attention (supra, p. 318) to an overlooked hypothesis, propounded long ago, and, so far as I know, still unrefuted. Neither have I any wish to argue the question. Indeed, controversy about it is happily almost impossible, since he admits the chief fact of which I reminded him to be what he now terms (supra, p. 365) “an elementary postulate”—an expression far stronger than I should venture to use; but had he before shown any disposition to recognize it, my remarks had not been written. On the contrary, he implied (supra, p. 294) that it was a recent discovery, as it certainly appears to have been to him. I trust he will excuse me for having pointed out its want of novelty, just as he seems to excuse Prof. Geikie for pointing out the antiquity of his views as to the former climate of Siberia; and at the same time I have to ask Mr. Howorth's pardon for demurring to some of the assertions in his last communication, especially that as to the avifauna of Siberia having been “worked out from end to end.” I dare not hope to see the day when this shall be done; but then I am not of a sanguine temperament.
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NEWTON, A. Mr. Howorth on the Variation of Colour in Birds. Nature 39, 389 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/039389a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/039389a0
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