Vol. XXXV.] 82 



' Birds of New Guinea.' I think that is the reason he has 

 earned such a name for being a careful worker. To me 

 colour-pattern must stand out as a guide, and I think, from 

 what I have heard to-night, that we are all agreed on 

 that point. 



Mr. C. Chubb : It appears to me, if we take the families 

 of birds as they are divided at present^ we shall find in the 

 majority of cases that each family possesses a colour, or 

 combination of colours, which is peculiar to itself and does 

 not occur in any other family with any great persistence. 

 If we treat genei'a on the same lines^ we find also that the 

 colour of the species in each genus is, as a rule, quite 

 different from those of the other genera in the same family, 

 and this is very often supported by the young. We may 

 take as an instance the family of the Rheidse, which includes 

 two well-marked genera^ Rkea and Pterocjiemia ; the young 

 of each show the structural characters, and in addition to 

 these have quite a diflferent coloration. When working at 

 the Tinamous a short time ago, we noticed one case where 

 the individuals of one species stood out quite conspicuously 

 from all the others of the same genus by the diff'erence 

 of coloration ; we found on examination that there were 

 structural differences, and consequently made it into a new 

 genus. I am of opinion, therefore, that wherever there is 

 diverse coloration, structural or comparative difi'ereuces will 

 most probably be found to support it. 



Mr. T. Iredale disagreed with all the previous s'peakers 

 who had concluded that genera were merely matters of 

 convenience, and declared that they were as natural as 

 species or subspecies — which view had been strenuously 

 denied. The fact that colour cannot be ignored, and is not, 

 by the opponents of colour-values is seen in the recent 

 acceptance of the genus Histrionicus , which was based solely 

 on the remarkable colour-pattern of the single species. By 

 such workers the Herons have been classed according to 

 colour, all the white Herons being placed in one genus, and 

 separated from the coloured species, though the former show 

 greater structural difi'ereuces inter se than thev difler as a 



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