KINGFISHERS 109 



no Yankee blood-curdling yarn -spinner could equal 



him. 



" Upon a drooping bough with nightshade twined, 

 I saw two azure halcyons clinging downward, 

 And thinning one bright branch of amber berries 

 With quick long beaks, and in the deep there lay 

 Those lovely forms, imaged, as in a sky." 



Had he described a couple of kingfishers sitting on a 

 merry-go-round, drinking ginger-pop and eating apple 

 tart, the poet would have been equally near the truth. 

 The worst evil one can wish to a bird is for it to fall 

 into the clutches of the poet ! 



Eighteen different kinds of kingfisher are found in 

 India, and a group of birds more interesting to the 

 biologist does not exist. As we have seen, the white- 

 breasted kingfisher affords striking evidence on behalf 

 of the theory of organic evolution ; the group, however, 

 prove no less conclusively, in my opinion, the insuffi- 

 ciency of the theory of natural selection alone to account 

 for the origin of all new species. 



All kingfishers and their allies (except the aberrant 

 form described above) have similar habits ; why then 

 the great diversity in their colour ? We see in Madras 

 the little blue kingfisher and the black-and-white species 

 living side by side, each equally successful in the struggle 

 for existence, and each carrying on the same trade ; 

 surely, then, if their colouring is due to the action of 

 natural selection, both species should resemble one 

 another in appearance. Yet as a matter of fact they 

 do not. 



What has caused this divergence ? This is a question 

 to which a satisfactory answer has yet to be found. Let 



