322 Williams, Color in Relation to Inheritance. \oa 



the blue is confined to patches on the lower back, and on the 

 wings. In the Belted Kingfisher it is diffused, as bluish gray 

 over the whole upper surface. 



Even a species like the Ruddy Kingfisher {Halcyon coroman- 

 dus), whose plumage is almost entirely chestnut, has, still, a dis- 

 tinctly blue reflection on the white rump, and a purple gloss 

 lingers over the upper surface of the back and wings. The 

 Laughing Kingfisher (Dacelo gigas) has, also, notwithstanding 

 its sombre tints, some bluish spots on the wings and rump. 



Blue, or green, is a predominant color in the Rollers, Bee- 

 eaters and Motmots, — the three anisodactyle families that are 

 most nearly allied to the Kingfishers. The Rollers have gener- 

 ally rich shades of blue on the wings and tail, as well as on other 

 parts ; and the other two families have, as a rule, some bright 

 patch of it on the head or rump. 



Like the other group, they all lay white eggs, which are con- 

 cealed, either in tunnels excavated in the banks of streams or in 

 hollow trees. 



Why should the zygodactyle group have a red tendency, and 

 the anisodactyle a blue tendency ? It has nothing to do, appar- 

 ently, either with food or climate. 



Is it not, probably, an inheritance from the primeval type of 

 each group, which has become so strongly fixed in the constitu- 

 tion that it is almost impossible to get rid of it? 



We may conclude, I think, that color, evanescent and transi- 

 tory as it sometimes seems, is, under certain aspects, almost as 

 good a guide in classification of birds as the shape of the bill, 

 or the arrangement of the toes. 



The groups here noticed were specially suggested by the birds 

 that happened to be in the Natural History Society's Museum 

 at Montreal ; but the same persistence of primitive colors could, 

 probably, be traced in other orders, where some early type of 

 the group is still represented by a living form. 



