644 The Colors of Animals and Plants. —[ November, 
adorned with color in the tropical than in the temperate zone: 
such are thrushes, wrens, goat-suckers, hawks, grouse, plovers, | 
and snipe; and if tropical light and heat have any direct color- 
ing effect, it is certainly most extraordinary that in groups so 
varied in form, structure, and habits as those just mentioned the 
tropical should be in no wise distinguished in this respect from 
the temperate species. The brilliant tropical birds mostly be- 
long to groups which are wholly or almost wholly tropical, as 
the chatterers, toucans, trogons, and pittas; but as there are, 
perhaps, an equal number of groups which are wholly dull col- 
ored, while others contain dull and bright colored species in 
nearly equal proportions, the evidence is by no means strong that 
tropical light or heat has anything to do with the matter. But 
there are also groups in which the cold and temperate zones pro- 
duce finer-colored species than the tropics. Thus the arctic ducks 
and divers are handsomer than those of the tropical zone, while 
the king duck of temperate America and the mandarin duck of 
Northern China are the most beautifully colored of the whole 
family. In the pheasant family we have the gorgeous gold and 
silver pheasants in Northern China and Mongolia, and the su- 
perb impeyan pheasant in the temperate Northwest Himalayas, 
as against the peacocks and fire-backed pheasants of tropical 
Asia.. Then we have the curious fact that most of the bright- 
colored birds of the tropics are denizens- of the forests, where 
they are shaded from the direct light of the sun, and that they 
abound near the equator, where cloudy skies are very prevalent ; 
` while, on the other hang, places where light and heat are at a 
maximum have often dull-colored birds. Such are the Sahara 
and other deserts, where almost all the living things are sand 
colored; but the most curious case is that of the Galapagos Isl- 
ands, situated under the equator and not far from South Amer- 
ica, where the most gorgeous colors abound, but which are yet 
characterized by prevailing dull and sombre tints in birds, 0- 
' sects, and flowers, so that they reminded Mr. Darwin of the cold 
and barren plains of Patagonia. Insects are wonderfully brilis 
iant in tropical countries generally, and any one looking pie 
collection of South American or Malayan butterflies would sco 
the idea of their being no more igayly colored than the ERE 
of European species, and in this they would be undoubtedly 
right. But on examination we should find that 
brilliantly colored groups were exclusively tropica 
where a genus has a wide range there is little difference in polot : — 
all the more — 
1, and tha 
