LEAF AND TENDRIL 



as if from the effect of some fashion that has spread 

 among them. In the Phihppine Islands metallic hues 

 are the fashion; in some other islands very light 

 tints are in vogue; in still other localities unrelated 

 species favor crimson or blue. Mr. Wallace says that 

 among the various butterflies of different countries 

 this preference for certain colors is as marked as it 

 would be if the hares, marmots, and squirrels of 

 Europe were all red with black feet, while the cor- 

 responding species of Central Asia were all yellow 

 with black heads, or as it would be if our smaller 

 mammals, the coon, the possum, the squirrels, all 

 copied the black and. white of the skunk. The reason 

 for all this is not apparent, though Wallace thinks 

 that some quality of the soil which affects the food 

 may be the cause. It is like the caprice of fashion. 

 In fact, the exaggerated plumes, fantastic colors, 

 and monstrous beaks of many birds- in both hemi- 

 spheres have as little apparent utility, and seem 

 to be quite as much the result of caprice, as are any 

 of the extreme fashions in dress among human 

 beings. 



Our red-shouldered starlings flock in the fall, and 

 they are not protectively colored, but the bobolinks, 

 which also flock at the same time, do then assume 

 neutral tints. Why the change in the one case and not 

 in the other, since both species feed in the brown 

 marshes ? Most of our own ground birds are more 

 or less ground-colored; but here on the ground, amid 

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