EVOLUTION OF THE COLORS OF BIRDS. 239 



green and red are the prevailing tints of the Neotropical 

 region (Central and South America), yellow and red of 

 the Indian. Australia is to be distinguished from the 

 rest by the great abundance of black animals." 



Mr. Beddard adds: " A closer scrutiny of many of 

 the above instances and of others which seem to indicate 

 some connection between locality and colour, will proba- 

 bly show that other causes are probably responsible for 

 the colour changes," He, however, gives a number of 

 examples in which there appears to be some definite 

 relation between a locality and a particular color. The 

 most remarkable instance is that of a forest in southern 

 Brazil, where " Dr. Seitz found a perfectly circumscribed 

 region in which the insects were almost entirely blue; a 

 few miles away from this locality the insects were red, 

 yellow — any color but blue; but in the particular locality 

 blue was so characteristic a tint, that out of twenty 

 butterflies ten were entirely blue and the remaining ten 

 partially blue." Another remarkable instance which he 

 records is that of a butterfly found in South America, 

 which is almost identical in color with an entirely distinct 

 European form. Protective mimicry is in this case pre- 

 cluded by the fact that the two genera have always been 

 restricted to the localities in which they are at present 

 found. In commenting on this, Mr. Beddard says: 

 "We see here a particular type recurring in regions 

 widely separated, which may be reasonably supposed to 

 be due to similar environmental conditions." Whether 

 or not this easy explanation is sufficient to account for 

 the phenomena, a parallel, but more remarkable case 

 can be adduced which certainly cannot be so simply ex- 

 plained. The meadow lark of North America (Sturnella 

 magna) is a very distinctively marked bird with its 

 bright yellow breast, black crescentic throat patch, 

 streaked flanks and brown streaked back, with a dark 



