June 18, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



557 



lessly filled in with greater detail than the facts 

 rigidly warrant, and colors and forms are restored 

 when age has worn off almost all traces of their 

 original appearance. Nevertheless, the suggestive- 

 ness of the general view is valuable, and, when 

 a better interpretation of the facts comes to hand, 

 the old one can be modified or discarded. 



Joseph Jastrow. 



DISTRIBUTION OF COLORS IN THE 

 ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



Mr. L. Camerano has recently communicated 

 the results of his investigations on the distribution 

 of colors in the animal kingdom to the Academy 

 of sciences at Turin. Colors, he says, in the fre- 

 quency of their occurrence, range in the following 

 order : brown, black, yellow, gray and white, red, 

 green, blue, and violet, the last of which is the 

 most rare. They are, however, variable for differ- 

 ent groups of animal life. Among the vertebrates, 

 black, brown, and gray are the most common ; 

 among the invertebrates, red and yellow ; green 

 occurs most frequently among the lower types — 

 never, however, in mollusks ; violet appears in all 

 the groups ; while white is distributed very irregu- 

 larly, but most commonly among aquatic animals. 



The colors of animals generally bear some rela- 

 tion to the medium or situation which they in- 

 habit. Aquatic animals usually have the colors 

 more uniform and less lively than do the terrestrial 

 ones. Not seldom they exhibit a transparency, 

 and, when of brilliant colors, they generally live 

 among seaweed and other aquatic plants, very 

 seldom on rocks or sandy bottom. Birds of quick 

 and rapid flight are not generally bright-colored. 

 Animals living in sandy or rocky places are less 

 varied and less highly colored than those living in 

 regions covered with vegetation. The author de- 

 nies the assei tion that there is a constant relation 

 between animals and their food-habits. Carniv- 

 orous animals living among rich foliage and 

 flowers are often brilliant and varied, while many 

 fruit-eating species are modestly or obscurely col- 

 ored. The more rich a group is in species, the 

 more varied, in general, are its colors. Intensity 

 of coloration is not in direct relation with the 

 amount of light to which the animal is habitually 

 exposed, but bears a more direct relation with the 

 general development, being diminished by deficient 

 nutrition or disease. 



A dry climate renders colors more sombre, while 

 a moist one makes them more lively or clearer. 

 Altitude also exerts an influence upon colors : ac- 

 cording to the author, in the higher regions the 

 more brilliant forms are observed, but this view 

 is hardly borne out by facts in the animal king- 



dom, though vegetation may perhaps conform to 

 it. Species of the lower groups inhabiting islands 

 are more often sombre in color than allied species 

 from the continents. Different regions also modify 

 in different ways the predominating colors. In 

 the arctic regions, white, gray, black, and yellow 

 predominate ; in Ethiopia, yellow and brown ; in 

 India, the different shades of yellow; in the tropics, 

 green and yellow; in Australia, sombre colors, and 

 especially black. Throughout the animal king- 

 dom, animals of large size are generally less 

 varied, or more monotonous, in coloration, than 

 smaller individuals of the same groups. In most 

 animals the more brilliantly colored or spotted 

 portions of the body are the most exposed ones : 

 this is especially the case in insects. 



A NEW ENGLISH DICTIONARY. 



The great English dictionary of the Philologi- 

 cal society originated in suggestions made in 1857 

 by Dean (now Archbishop) Trench. Though a 

 great mass of material was collected and many 

 eminent men lent their aid to the undertaking, 

 yet in consequence of the death of the first general 

 editor, Mr. Herbert Coleridge, and other disturbing 

 conditions, the work languished until the year 

 1878. At that time the directorship was assigned 

 to Dr. Murray ; and the delegates of the Claren- 

 don press consented, under certain conditions, to 

 bear the expense of printing and publishing the 

 dictionary. Work was at once resumed with 

 ardor. More than eight hundred volunteer readers 

 undertook to collect additional quotations from 

 specified books. In the United States the reading 

 was in charge of Prof. F. A. March of Lafayette 

 college, Easton, Penn., who has been indefatigable 

 in his efforts to aid this great enterprise. In the 

 course of three years a million additional quota- 

 tions were furnished, making the total number 

 about three million and a half, selected by about 

 thirteen hundred readers from the works of more 

 than five thousand authors of all periods. The 

 general editor has been aided by a considerable 

 number of sub-editors, and various specialists 

 have furnished material in their respective depart- 

 ments. The apparatus, therefore, for the con- 

 struction of this dictionary, is such as the world 

 has never before seen. It is a combination of all 

 the resources of the English-speaking world, con- 

 ducted by the men who represent the broadest and 

 most intelligent scientific knowledge. 



The aim of the dictionary, the editor states, "is 

 to furnish an adequate account of the meaning, 



A new English dictionary on historical principles. Parts 

 i. and ii. Ed. by James A. H. Murray, LL.D. Oxford, 

 Clarendon pr., 1884, 1885. f°. 



