482 



THE DESCENT OF MAIf 



which sing well are rarely decorated with brilliant colors 

 or other ornaments. Of our British birds, excepting the 

 bullfinch and goldfinch, the best songsters are plain- 

 colored. The kingfisher, bee-eater, roller, hoopoe, wood- 



peckers, etc., utter harsh cries; and the brilliant birds of 

 the tropics are hardly ever songsters.*" Hence bright colors 

 and the power of song seem to replace each other. We can. 

 perceiye that if the plumage did not vary in brightness, or 



*• See remarks to this effect in Gould's "Introduction to the Troehilidse," 

 1861, p. 22. 



