Abstract
TO the July issue of the Quarterly Review Dr. H. Gadow communicates an instructive article on the nature and meaning of the colours of birds. After pointing out the fallacy of the idea that the colouring of such birds as the scarlet ibis or white egret can be in any sense protective, the author discusses the diverse means by which colour is produced in birds, showing that while black and the red and yellow group are pigmentary, blues and greens are so-called structural tints, due to the reflection from the surface of the feathers of an undue proportion of short light-rays. Metallic colouring, which usually occurs in black feathers, is due, of course, to another cause. Dr. Gadow next proceeds to describe the sequence in which various colours replace one another with the advance of specialisation. As regards the cause of colour-specialisation, the author rejects both natural and sexual selection, remarking that if the latter were the inducing factor, every group and species would have its own taste, and each individual would strive to develop its yellow patches into orange and then into red. For the explanation offered in place of natural and sexual selection, we must refer our readers to the article itself.
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Bird Notes . Nature 84, 378 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/084378a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/084378a0