Revieius



201



Tambourine Dove [Tympanistria tympanistria). —Three pairs of

these are at present incubating eggs.


Virginian Cardinal ( Cardinalis virginianus). —Have built a

nest in some ivy, but up to the present have not laid.


Crowned Lapwing ( Stephanihyx coronatus ).—Two eggs were laid,

but both were eaten by a cock Madagascar Partridge.


A hen Green Singing Finch mated to a cock Alario Finch have

nested in a box-bush and the first egg was laid yesterday (6th May).


I hope to supply further and more successful notes later on.



REVIEWS


THE MEANING OF ANIMAL COLOUR AND ADORNMENT

(Edward Arnold & Co., 18s. net.)


Major R. W. G. Kingston, the author of this book, is a well-known

and observant field naturalist who has done much excellent work

amongst which may be mentioned the production of books of great

merit, such as A Naturalist in the Guiana Forest. In the volume now

under notice he tries to prove that the chief function of the various

colour adornments of animals is to excite fear in rivals and so give

the animal possessing these special markings or adornments an

advantage over its adversaries. Since, however, an animal generally

fights with a rival of its own species and sex, which is similarly adorned,

it is difficult to see what advantage the one has over the other. The

author admits that many animals are protectively coloured, but con¬

siders that they would be better equipped in this direction if they

were entirely without markings, or self-coloured and devoid of the

dark or light markings which nearly all possess. He instances the

lion as a tawny-coloured animal which would be more protectively

coloured than it is if it did not possess the darker markings which

are found on the mane, tail-tuft, and ears. Such markings he con¬

siders as threatening marks. He does not seem to have grasped the

fact that an animal that is uniformly coloured and devoid of all

markings is very much more conspicuous than one in which the shape



