108 CONTROLLED NATURAL SELECTION 



The following method of placing the birds 

 in the tables is employed. Birds presenting 

 defined, unconcealed, flat areas of red, blue, 

 yellow, black or white are placed under "at- 

 tracting " ; the rest under " cryptic." In a 

 few cases difficulties arise ; for instance, the 

 Ring Dove (C. palumbus) has a small white 

 patch on either side of the neck, and should 

 therefore have been placed under "attract- 

 ing " : but because the area of white is, com- 

 pared to the bird, very small, and the bird 

 otherwise undoubtedly cryptically coloured, 

 it has been placed under " cryptic." 



DIVISION I 



Birds of Prey. See Table I. 



Without exception, none of these birds 

 present conspicuous colouring because they 

 are not liable to be attacked. They require to 

 be cryptically coloured so as to be able to 

 approach their prey unobserved. The sexes 

 are similar, therefore males are not espe- 

 cially destroyed, and polygamy does not 

 occur. 



Night Birds. See Table II. 



These are, without exception, cryptically 

 coloured ; attracting colour for the protection 



