336 DARWINISM 



are more gorgeous than some of the tiger-beetles and the 

 carabi, yet these are all carnivorous ; while many of the most 

 brilliant metallic buprestidae and longicorns are always found 

 on the bark of fallen trees. So with the humming-birds ; 

 their brilliant metallic tints can only be compared with metals 

 or gems, and are totally unlike the delicate pinks and purples, 

 yellows and reds of the majority of flowers. Again, the 

 Australian honey-suckers (Meliphagidse) are genuine flower- 

 haunters, and the Australian flora is more brilliant in colour 

 display than that of most tropical regions, yet these birds are, 

 as a rule, of dull colours, not superior on the average to our 

 grain-eating finches. Then, again, we have the grand pheasant 

 family, including the gold and the silver pheasants, the gorgeous 

 fire-backed and ocellated pheasants, and the resplendent pea- 

 cock, all feeding on the ground on grain or seeds or insects, 

 yet adorned with the most gorgeous colours. 



There is, therefore, no adequate basis of facts for this theory 

 to rest upon, even if there were the slightest reason to believe 

 that not only birds, but butterflies and beetles, take any 

 delight in colour for its own sake, apart from the food-supply 

 of which it indicates the presence. All that has been proved or 

 that appears to be probable is, that they are able to perceive 

 differences of colour, and to associate each colour with the 

 particular flowers or fruits which best satisfy their wants. 

 Colour being in its nature diverse, it has been beneficial for 

 them to be able to distinguish all its chief varieties, as mani- 

 fested more particularly in the vegetable kingdom, and among 

 the different species of their own group ; and the fact that 

 certain species of insects show some preference for a particular 

 colour may be explained by their having found flowers of 

 that colour to yield them a more abundant supply of nectar 

 or of pollen. In those cases in which butterflies frequent 

 flowers of their own colour, the habit may well have been 

 acquired from the protection it affords them. 



It appears to me that, in imputing to insects and birds the 

 same love of colour for its own sake and the same aesthetic 

 tastes as we ourselves possess, we may be as far from the truth 

 as were those writers who held that the bee was a good mathe- 

 matician, and that the honeycomb was constructed throughout 

 to satisfy its refined mathematical instincts ; whereas it is now 



