THE MOSAIC OF COLOURS 



recognition-marks, we may conclude that their nests are invisible 

 to their enemies. And indeed, just as in Europe the male and female 

 of the Titmice and Woodpeckers are almost similar in colour, but 

 are able to wear colours visible from a distance, because their eggs 

 or nestlings are hidden away in some hole in a tree-trunk, where 

 their bright plumage is invisible, so those Brazilian birds which 

 nest in holes display colour in both sexes. The Sleepers, Kingfishers, 

 Jacamars, Woodpeckers, Toucans, Parrots and other birds nest 

 some underground, and some in the holes of trees, so that both 

 sexes may display colour without endangering their brood. At the 

 same time, the eggs of these birds are able to dispense with protective 

 coloration. While the eggs in open nests are brown or spotted, and 

 in any case of such a shade that they tone in with their surroundings 

 of grass or what not, the eggs of the troglodyte birds have no need 

 of colour. The eggs of the Woodpeckers, Owls, Parrots are white as 

 hen's eggs. 



Hitherto writers on natural history have stated that the green 

 which occurs in the plumage of so many parrots is intended to 

 conceal them when surrounded by foliage, and have endeavoured 

 to support this theory by pointing to the evergreen foliage of the 

 tropical trees. But this belief was born in the study, and depends 

 on the hypothesis that the green of the tropics is like the green of 

 our European trees. This, however, is not the case, and I continually 

 noted, in Ceylon as well as in Brazil, that the Parrots, in their 

 grass-green plumage, stand out very plainly against the darker 

 green of the glittering tropical foliage. These birds, of course, are 

 among those that nest in holes. In New Guinea there is a species 

 of parrot (Eclectus pectoralis) of which the male is grass-green, 

 while the female is scarlet. If the green were protective it would 

 be impossible to understand why, in contrast to all other birds, 

 the male should be clad in protective colours while the female is 

 conspicuously clad. 



Yet other subtleties may be observed in the colouring of birds. 

 Since the arch-enemies of the smaller birds are the hawks, which 

 circle in the air and fall upon their victims from above, the back 

 of the hawk is usually less light in tone than the underside. As 

 with us there are redbreasts, bluethroats, whitethroats, etc., so a 

 survey of the Brazilian birds will show that if the conditions of its 

 life demand both protective coloration and recognition-marks in 

 the same bird, the former will occur on the back and the latter 

 on the throat, breast and belly, which generally show the most 



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