534 



NATURE 



[October 27, 19 10 



interpretations and later developments which are likely 

 to cast an entirely undeserved suspicion upon this 

 admirable account of a great discovery. 



In the first place, in the present state of our know- 

 ledge of a most difficult subject and the great need for 

 numberless exact observations and precise records, 



Fig. 5.— Domestic Ha 



on its back, out of doors, so that the oblit 

 ersed. Photographed from life. 



illustrations in which the background has been 

 "copied, colour-note for colour-note," from the animal 

 itself, are a hindrance and not a help (plates I., HI., 

 VI., VIII., IX., X., and Fig. 123). The inferred 

 environment is not necessarily incorrect — the rattle- 

 snake (Fig. 123) at least is almost certainly represented 

 with truth — but the inference is not scientific evidence, 

 and it is likelv to act as a hindrance, because some 

 readers may be led into accepting it as a proof, others 

 into scoffing at the whole subject. Furthermore, the 

 inferred significance of the animal's colouring may be 

 wholly mistaken, as I doubt not is the case with the 

 beautiful and poetic plates IX. and X., representing 

 " flamingoes at dawn or sunset, and the skies they 

 picture." Such an interpretation is quite incon- 

 sistent with the wonderful representation of flamingo 

 life prepared bv Dr. F. M. Chapman for the .'\merican 

 Museum of Natural History, New York. The present 

 writer had seen the representation and knew well the 

 unrivalled knowledge and experience which had gone 

 to till- 111. iking of it, and he therefore wrote to his 

 friend and aslced his opinion as to the meaning of the 

 colours of these birds. Dr. Chapman kindly replied 

 as follows : — 



My observations of flamingoes (which I should add were 

 made only in the Bahamas) lead to the belief that our 

 .'\merican bird (Phocnicoplcriis rtiher) is protected by its 

 b.aunts and habits rather than by its colour. .\t all times, 

 whether feeding singly or when nesting and solidly massed 

 in hundreds, it is from any point of view an exceedingly 

 conspicuous object. Apparently, therefore, it thrives only 

 when it is beyond the reach of predatory Mammalia and 

 Reptilia, its centres of abundance being oceanic islands, 

 like the Bahamas or Galapagoes, or small keys off the 

 mainland. It is true that flamingoes formerly visited the 

 shores of southern Florida in great numbers, but they 

 have never been known to nest there, and they frequented 

 only the vast shallow bays where they could feed far from 

 land, and where it was almost impossible to approach them ; 

 for it should be especially noted that these flamingoes are 

 as shy as they are conspicuous. The character of the 



NO. 2139, VOL. 84] 



regions they frequent usually enables them to see as far 

 as they can be seen, and the brilliancy of their colours 

 seems to be compensated for by their extreme wariness. 

 For example, a professional hunter of flamingoes on the 

 Florida coast tells me that for six days a week for two 

 consecutive weeks he pursued a flock, estimated to contain 

 2ono flamingoes, without securing a single specimen. 



I am, of course, aware that man should 

 not be classed among the natural enemies 

 of the flamingo, nor their colours be ex- 

 plained from the human view-point, but the 

 fact just mentioned at any rate illustrates 

 the bird's alertness and the difliculty with 

 which it is approached. 



As, in the Bahamas, at any rate, the 

 flamingo feeds only on molluscs, its colours 

 are apparently not deceptive or aggressive. 

 In short, it is my belief that the flamingo's 

 colours are to be placed among the cases 

 where colour has run riot, imchecked by 

 any need for protection from enemy or 

 prey, and that the bird has continued to 

 exist only where the dangers to which of 

 necessity its colour would expose it are 

 happily absent. 



The flamingo has been considered at 

 some length. With regard to the pea- 

 cock in the wood (plate I.), it can only 

 be said here that the interpretation is 

 hardlv likelv to be accepted by anyone 

 who has watched the male bird display- 

 ing before the female or in rivalry with 

 another male. 



Nor are many naturalists likely- 

 III be convinced by Mr. Thayer's in- 

 terpretation of recognition markings 

 and warning colours, an interpretation rendered suffi- 

 ciently clear by Figs. 8 and g. Here, as in all other 

 examples of animal colouring, Mr. Thayer considers 

 the one dominant interpretation to be concealment. 



: shading : 





6. — Diagram showing the picturing of perspective by animals' 

 patterns. I'he bird is supposed to be l,,ok:d at from the side and 

 .above so that the smrrll-r pattern of it^ h:ad and neck is against 

 'tlie more distant and therefore reduced pattern of the ground 

 surface. 



the Spilogale's "dark stripes passing for vegetation, 

 and his white stripes for the sky." This explanation 

 of warning .colours has been recently criticised, and 

 in the opinion of the present writer entirely refuted, by 

 Mr. R. I. Pocock (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1908, pp. 944-959), 

 and the corresponding interpretation of recognition 



