Note 75 — Chapter IX

It appears to be generally assumed that colour perception in birds is similar to what it is among human beings, but some experiments made by Hess[75] render it very doubtful whether this is really the case. In one of these experiments a row of cooked white grains of rice was illuminated by the whole series of spectral colours from violet to deep red. Hens which had been previously kept in the dark so that their eyes were adapted to light of low intensity were then allowed to feed on the spectral rice. The grains illuminated by green, yellow, and red were quickly taken, but the very dark red, the violet, and the blue were left, presumably because the birds were unable to perceive them. Again, when the birds were given a patch of rice grains of which half was feebly illuminated by red light and the other half more strongly by blue light, they took the red but left the blue. Previous experiment had shewn that with ordinary white light the birds always started on the best illuminated grains. It seems reasonable to conclude, therefore, that in the red-blue experiment the feebly illuminated red grains were more visible than the far more strongly lighted blue ones. It might be objected that the birds had a prejudice against blue, but, as Hess points out, this is almost certainly not the case because they took grains which were very strongly illuminated with blue. Results of a similar nature were also obtained from pigeons, and from a kestrel which was fed with pieces of meat lighted with different colours.