522 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



much as when uninjured. (This would seem to indicate the same kind 

 of susceptibility to unaccustomed violet rays which we have already 

 encountered in the phenomenon of sun-burn.) The triton and cochi- 

 neal, with eyes removed and heads covered with wax, still had delicate 

 sense for color and brightness. The flea infesting the dog had a finer 

 color sense than the bee, while nearly all the animals Graber investi- 

 gated were more or less sensitive to the ultra-red rays. 



Among insects it scarcely appears, nor should we expect that there 

 would be any peculiarly marked predilection or aversion for red. Cock- 

 erell and F. W. Anderson, from observations in various parts of the 

 United States, believe that yellow (i. e., the brightest color) is the most 

 attractive to insects, and the former doubts whether insects can dis- 

 tinguish red from yellow. Among the higher animals, and even among 

 fishes and birds, there is not only a color sense, but a highly emotional- 

 ized color sense, and red appears to be usually the color that arouses 

 the emotion. There is a proverb, 'Women and mackerel are caught 

 by red,' and perch is also said to be caught by red bait. Sparrows 

 appear to be repelled by red; the case is reported of a hen sparrow, kept 

 in captivity for ten years, which though otherwise a fearless bird 'would 

 on seeing scarlet show painful signs of distress and faint away.' The 

 lady who records this observation has noted the same repugnance to 

 red, though in a less marked degree, in other sparrows, one of which 

 showed a predilection for blue objects, and she remarks that when 

 feeding outdoor sparrows from the window they flew away when she 

 wore a red jacket, while a blue jacket inspired them with confidence; 

 other birds, she found, except a cockatoo, were unaffected by colors. 

 Red, it is well known, is very obnoxious to turkey cocks, while the 

 fury aroused in various quadrupeds by red was known at a very early 

 period; Seneca referred to it in the case of the bull, the most familiar 

 example; it is seen in buffaloes, sometimes in horses, and also, it is said, 

 in the hippopotamus. 



The phenomena of color aversion and color predilection among 

 insects may possibly be in some degree a matter of physical sensibility, 

 varying according to the creature's tissues, habitat and needs, but as we 

 approach the vertebrates and especially the mammals there can be little 

 doubt that it is mainly a matter of environment and association; in 

 other words, that it is accounted for by the color of food, the color of 

 blood and the color of the chief secondary sexual characters. 



Let us, however, confine ourselves to man, and consider what are 

 the chief colored objects that are of most vital concern to the human 

 and most closely allied species. 



One of the earliest groups of such objects — some would say the 

 most important group in this connection — is that of ripe fruits. Cer- 

 tainly among the frugivorous apes and among many races of primitive 



