RECORD: Darwin, C. R. n.d. Abstract of Jerdon, Birds of India. CUL-DAR84.2.191-192. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 3.2022. RN1

NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volumes CUL-DAR80-86 contain material for Darwin's book Descent of man (1871).

Darwin cited this in Descent, vol. 2.


[191]

T. C. Jerdon, Birds of India. Vol. II. Part I. 1863

p. 96 The Bullfinch Pycnonotus hæmorrhous "fight with great spirit" [crossed] – "under tail-coverts crimson" – "when excited they often spread out their feathers laterally, so as to be seen even from above."  Display [Quoted]

[See Descent 2: 41; 96.]

p. 97 Phyllornis Jerdoni the ♀ is bright-coloured with blue patch above, nest open.

p. 282 The Sultan yellow-tit. Melanochlora sultanea - magnificent bird, nest in holes, ♀ has the parts black which are blackish-green in male, & the yellow less vivid. ( [illeg] Pairs)

p 344 Ploceus baga wonderful retort nest. - The ♀ totally want bright yellow on head. The weaver-bird.

p. 344-348. good account of instinct of Building – "The constructive propensity" leads them in cage to wild threads between wires Q

369. The Emberizidæ - do not appear as a rule to have a vernal moult (How about Snow Bunting?) Richardson) - no moult, but in winter colours less pure, having pale edges which wear off towards summer.

383 True Fringillidae - male generally more brightly coloured

[192]

than ♀, & becomes still more so in the breeding season, but not in all by a fresh moult, "but chiefly by the shedding of the deciduary margin to the feathers; in some, perhaps, by a change of colour in the feathers themselves."

[Cited in Descent 2: 80, n73: "'Nitzsch's Pterylography,' edited by P. L. Sclater. Ray Soc. 1867, p. 14."]


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