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DARWINISM 
CHAP. 
assimilate with the black stripes of the tiger; and, in like 
manner, the spotty shadows of leaves in the forest so 
harmonise with the spots of ocelots, jaguars, tjger-cats, and 
spotted deer as to afford them a very perfect concealment. 
In some cases the concealment is effected by colours and 
markings which are so striking and peculiar that no one who 
had not seen the creature in its native haunts would imagine 
them to be protective. An example of this is afforded by the 
banded fruit pigeon of Timor, whose pure white head and 
neck, black wings and back, yellow belly, and deeply-curved 
black band across the breast, render it a very handsome and 
conspicuous bird. Yet this is what Mr. H. O. Forbes says of 
it : “ On the trees the white-headed fruit pigeon (Ptilopus 
cinctus) sate motionless during the heat of the day in numbers, 
on well-exposed branches ; hut it was with the utmost difficulty 
that I or my sharp-eyed native servant could ever detect them, 
even in trees where we knew they were sitting.” 1 The trees 
referred to are species of Eucalyptus which abound in Timor. 
They have whitish or yellowish bark and very open foliage, 
and it is the intense sunlight casting black curved shadows of 
one branch upon another, with the white and yellow bark and 
deep blue sky seen through openings of the foliage, that pro 
duces the peculiar combination of colours and shadows to 
which the colours and markings of this bird have become so 
closely assimilated. 
Even such brilliant and gorgeously coloured birds as the 
sun-birds of Africa are, according to an excellent observer, 
often protectively coloured. Mrs. M. E. Barber remarks 
that “ A casual observer would scarcely imagine that the 
highly varnished and magnificently coloured plumage of the 
various species of Noctarinea could be of service to them, yet 
this is undoubtedly the case. The most unguarded moments 
of the lives of these birds are those that are spent amongst 
the flowers, and it is then that they are less wary than at any 
other time. The different species of aloes, which blossom in 
succession, form the principal sources of their winter supplies 
of food; and a legion of other gay flowering plants in spring 
and summer, the aloe blossoms especially, are all brilliantly 
coloured, and they harmonise admirably with the gay plumage 
1 A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago , p. 460. 
