' 28o Journal of Travel and Natural History 



Grouse, and in general all the larger birds which lay upon the 

 ground, make a very scanty nest, some of them no nest at all. 

 Let us, then, apply the argument of Mr Wallace. As nests are 

 determined by structure and by habitat, they are comparatively 

 fixed. The colour of birds is comparatively unfixed, and liable to 

 change. Therefore, the scanty nests of ground-laying birds are the 

 cause of their peculiar colour — the peculiarity of that colour 

 being, that it is in general assimilated to, or correlated with, the 

 colour of the ground which they inhabit. 



But there is no need of testing the fallacy of Mr Wallace's 

 argument by referring to any cases beyond those which he has 

 himself selected. His classification of facts is as arbitrary and 

 unnatural as any which could possibly be chosen for the purpose 

 of shewing how arbitrary and how unnatural a classification can 

 be made. Let us see what it is. " Considering," he says, " the main 

 purpose of birds nests to be the protection of the eggs, and the 

 security and comfort of the young birds, we may group them under 

 two primary divisions, according as they more or less completely 

 fulfil this important function.'' But there are no such primary 

 divisions in nature, from this very obvious cause, that all birds are 

 on a perfect equality as regards the completeness with which these 

 two great objects are attained. The young Guillemot or Fulmar, 

 which is hatched upon a naked ledge of rock, without a scrap of nest, 

 and exposed to all the storms and rains of the Atlantic, is as " com- 

 fortable" and as "secure" as the young of the Golden-crested Wren 

 which sways in a dome of well-woven moss under the breezes 

 which reach it in a wood of pines. These modes of nesting are 

 indeed very different, but in respect to providing for the " comfort 

 and security " of the young, the one is as perfect as the other ; and 

 amidst the vast variety which prevail in the nests of birds, this one 

 great purpose is secured with equal certainty in them all. 



The very idea of this classification, then, is erroneous from the 

 beginning. But the manner in which it is applied brings out its 

 artificial character still more clearly. " In the first of these two 

 primary divisions," continues Mr Wallace, " we place all those in 

 which the eggs and young are hidden from sight, no matter 

 whether this is effected by an elaborate covered structure, or by 

 depositing the eggs in some hollow tree or burrow under ground. 

 In the second (primary division) we group all in which the eggs 

 and young and sitting bird arc exposed to view, no matter whether 

 there is the most beautifully-formed nest or none at all." Here 



