110 TROPICAL NATURE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. 



Celebes ; the enormously developed tail-coverts of the 

 peacock and the Mexican trogon ; and the excessive 

 wing-plumes of the argus-pheasant of Malacca and the 

 long-shafted goatsucker of West Africa. 



Still more remarkable are the varied styles of colora- 

 tion in the birds of tropical forests, which rarely or never 

 appear in those of temperate lands. We have intensely 

 lustrous metallic plumage in the jacamars, trogons, 

 humming-birds, sun-birds, and paradise-birds ; as well as 

 in some starlings, pittas or ground thrushes, and drongo- 

 shrikes. Pure green tints occur in parrots, pigeons, 

 green bulbuls, greenlets, and in some tanagers, finches, 

 chatterers, and pittas. These undoubtedly tend to con- 

 cealment ; but we have also the strange phenomenon of 

 white forest-birds in the tropics, a colour only found 

 elsewhere among the aquatic tribes and in the arctic 

 regions. Thus, we have the bell-bird of South America, 

 the white pigeons and cockatoos of the East, with a few 

 starlings, woodpeckers, kingfishers, and goatsuckers, 

 which are either very light- coloured or in great part 

 pure white. 



But besides these strange, and new, and beautiful 

 forms of bird-life, which we have attempted to indicate 

 as characterising the tropical regions, the traveller will 

 soon find that there are hosts of dull and dingy birds, 

 not one whit difi*erent, so far as colour is concerned, from 

 the sparrows, warblers, and thrushes of our northern 

 climes. He will however, if observant, soon note that 

 most of these dull colours are protective ; the groups to 

 which they belong frequenting low thickets, or the 

 ground, or the trunks of trees. He will find groups of 

 birds specially adapted to certain modes of tropical life. 



