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Alfred Russel Wallace : Alfred Wallace : A. R. Wallace :
Russel Wallace : Alfred Russell Wallace (sic)

 
 
The Colors of Feathers (S480a: 1893)

 
Editor Charles H. Smith’s Note: In early 1893 Charles A. Keeler published a book called The Evolution of the Colors of North American Land Birds. It received a number of negative reviews, so he printed a 'Reply to Criticism' in the October 1893 issue of The Auk. On page 375 of this essay are inserted some words from a letter on this subject Wallace had sent to Keeler earlier that year. To link directly to this page, connect with: http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/S480A.htm


...Mr. Wallace writes me as follows on this subject: "There is a point you do not refer to which seems to me most important--that is, whether the colours and markings of the feathers are developed in the young feather before it has opened out of its sheath, as we know that all the markings of the wings of butterflies are to be seen before it emerges from the pupa. If it is so, then climate can hardly have any direct influence."


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