626 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



NEO-DARAVINISM. 



The growth of what is known as " Neo-Darwinism " is a striking 

 example of the modern tendency to theorize on insufficient evidence. 

 A large school of biologists, headed by Doctor Wallace and Professor 

 Weismann, declares that all the varied phenomena of the organic 

 world can be explained by the action of natural selection on indefinite 

 and indeterminate variations, I venture to submit that Wallace and 

 Weismann would have but few followers had our European natural- 

 ists the advantage of an intimate acquaintance with the birds of 

 India. 



Come with me in imagination to a wood on the Nilgiri hills and 

 let us rest there a little, sheltered by the foliage from the rays of 

 the sun, and listen to the voices of the birds. The joyous notes of the 

 bulbuls {Otocompsa fuscicaudata) fall unceasingly on the ear, form- 

 ing the dominant note of the bird choir. Upon these are superim- 

 posed a tumult of other sounds — the curious call of the scimitar bab- 

 bler {Poffiatorhinus horsfeldii)^ the mirthful tones of the laughing 

 thrush {TTOchalo'pterutii cachinnans)^ the sweet little song of the 

 white-browed, f antailed flycatcher, the softer lay of Tickell's flycatcher 

 {Cyornis tickeUi), the cheeping of the black and orange species 

 {Ochromela nigrirufa)^ the feeble twitters of the gray -headed one 

 {Gulicicapa ceylonensis) , and a multitude of other sounds. 



THE PARADISE FLYCATCHER. 



While we are listening a fairylike bird flits silently into view and 

 perches in a leafy tree. This is a paradise flycatcher — -a cock in the 

 full glory of his adult jDlumage. Jet black is his crested head, con- 

 trasting sharply with his snowy plumage. Two of his tail feathers, 

 12 inches longer than the others, hang doAvn like satin streamers. The 

 hen lacks this ornament, and is deep chestnut, where her lord and 

 master is white. l\^i.ile we are contemplating him another cock ap- 

 pears on the scene, but he, although possessing the two long tail 

 feathers, is rich chestnut in color, as is the hen. He is in the second 

 year of his existence, but, like his white neighbor, has a wife and a 

 nest on which he spends much of the day. Paradise flycatchers are 

 restless creatures, constantly on the move. These two are soon lost to 

 view amid the green foliage. 



But another bird, in its way equally beautiful, has appeared on the 

 scene. Having taken some tiny insect upon the wing, it has alighted 

 on a horizontal branch, and is now bowing gracefully to right and 

 to left, the while spreading out its tail into a fan and singing its lay, 

 which has been likened to the opening bars of the " Guard's Valse." 

 This is the white-browed, f antailed flycatcher. We can not say whether 

 it is a cock or hen, for in this species there is no external difference 



