1911 J Barbour and Phillips, Concealing Coloration Again. loO 



of birds well protected by coloration are not rare. Bowdlcria 

 rufescens, from the Chatham Islands, has become completely 

 extinct through the introduction of cats and possibly of weasels. 

 Yet an examination of the two skins of this species preserved in the 

 Museum here in Cambridge show us a bird rich brown above, 

 streaked with darker brown, fading to white below — an ideal 

 type of concealing coloration for a bird which lived in the reed 

 beds or wild-flax fields of the desolate Chatham Islands. These 

 birds disappeared because they could not use their wits, just as 

 other birds disappear with the introduction of the mongoose. A 

 hundred examples of such extermination could easily be cited. Yet 

 birds colored in the same way live on in spite of the presence of 

 many Herpestes in India, where they have always been indigenous. 



Mr. Thayer, in a recent number of 'The Auk,' tells us that he 

 has painted a Himalayan Mountain gorge from the colored feathers 

 taken from the plumage of the male Monal, — why not female? 

 He fails to add that he might have accomplished the same result 

 with the colors seen in a polished agate, or taking the varied tints 

 seen on the skin of a baboon's nose. This method of persuasion, 

 while it does appeal to the public, is — there is no other word — 

 simply charlatanry however unwitting. We are also informed that 

 the colors taken from a flamingo, or rather the actual plumage of 

 the bird, has been used to paint a splendid sunset. What would 

 Mr. Thayer use to paint a rainy day, — may we perhaps suppose 

 the colors of the bird's feet and bill? For rain does fall even where 

 there are flamingoes. 



The Papuasian forests of New Guinea and the Cape York 

 Peninsula of Australia support a host of pigeons. These vary in 

 form and hue from the great stupid Blue-gray Goura to the small 

 lively doves of what we may conveniently term the genus Ptilopus. 

 Among these arboreal pigeons we find some birds almost entirely 

 pure white, and some solid green; others with the most bizarre 

 arrangement of pink, and yellow, magenta, red, blue, and indeed 

 almost every color. Are these birds of similar habits all equally 

 protected in the same forest; or do they have so few natural ene- 

 mies that they need less protection than usual? 



If Mr. Thayer had handled a large museum collection of birds, 

 and if he had happened to see any considerable number of them in 



