Glimpses of Indian Birds

mplete and incomplete albinos. In the former, the organism is totally devoid of external pigment, so that the eye looks red, there being no colouring mat

e varieties with pigmented eyes are not handicapped by bad eyesight, but their whiteness makes them conspicuous to the creatures that prey upon them; so t

and not a single white species would be found in the temperate zones or in the Tropics. That coloured species occur in the Arctic regions and white species in

s of birds outnumber the white species. I will, therefore, not dilate further upon this subject. It will suffice to repeat that in the area of eternal snow the white forms are at an advantage in the struggle for existence, as their whiteness tends t

at a conspicuous organism can survive in the fight for life provided it be otherwise well equipped for the contest. From t

otwithstanding its showy plumage. These birds are the spoonbill, the egrets, the black-winged stilt, the avocet, the white ibis, the flamingo, adult cock paradise flycatcher, and certain of the

e which is flat and expanded at the end like a spoon, hence the popular name of the bird. Perhaps another name for t

curlew. The stilt (Himantopus candidus) may be described as a sandpiper on red stilts. It is a white bird with dark wings and back which spends its days wading in shallow water. The avocet (Recurvirostra avocetta) is perhaps the most elegant of all wading birds. It is

empt to crack a hard nut. The egrets, of which there are several species in India, are snow-white, heron-like birds. The most familiar is the cattle egret (Bubulcus coromandus), which Finn characterises as one of the most pictu

flight that they have been called sea-swallows. The adult cock paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) is one of the most beautiful birds in the world. As he is described in another essay it is only necessary for me to state in this

t, if allowed to persist, they form the starting point for new varieties and species. As most passerine birds are small and preyed upon by the raptores, white varieties among them usually perish at an early age on account of their conspicuousness. Thus there are very few white passerine birds. The paradise flycatcher lives amid thick foliage, and so is comparatively immune from the attacks of birds of prey; but even here it is note-wo

e attacks of raptorial birds. The gulls and terns, although small, fly so powerfully as to be equally safe. In the case of birds which secure their food in

s to be correlated in some way wit

aquatic birds such white species possess no advantage in the struggle for existence, but, on the contrary, the whiteness of their pluma

comparatively little attention. Close study of this phenomenon may eventually revolutionise zoological thought. Whether this surmise prove