The Popular Science Monthly, September, 1900: Vol. 57, May, 1900 to October, 1900Various
Science
The Popular Science Monthly, September, 1900: Vol. 57, May, 1900 to October, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
Among insects it scarcely appears, nor should we expect that there
would be any peculiarly marked predilection or aversion for red.
Cockerell and F. W. Anderson, from observations in various parts of the
United States, believe that yellow (_i. e._, the brightest color) is
the most attractive to insects, and the former doubts whether insects
can distinguish red from yellow. Among the higher animals, and even
among fishes and birds, there is not only a color sense, but a highly
emotionalized color sense, and red appears to be usually the color
that arouses the emotion. There is a proverb, ‘Women and mackerel
are caught by red,’ and perch is also said to be caught by red bait.
Sparrows appear to be repelled by red; the case is reported of a hen
sparrow, kept in captivity for ten years, which though otherwise a
fearless bird ‘would on seeing scarlet show painful signs of distress
and faint away.’ The lady who records this observation has noted the
same repugnance to red, though in a less marked degree, in other
sparrows, one of which showed a predilection for blue objects, and she
remarks that when feeding outdoor sparrows from the window they flew
away when she wore a red jacket, while a blue jacket inspired them with
confidence; other birds, she found, except a cockatoo, were unaffected
by colors. Red, it is well known, is very obnoxious to turkey cocks,
while the fury aroused in various quadrupeds by red was known at a very
early period; Seneca referred to it in the case of the bull, the most
familiar example; it is seen in buffaloes, sometimes in horses, and
also, it is said, in the hippopotamus.
The phenomena of color aversion and color predilection among insects
may possibly be in some degree a matter of physical sensibility,
varying according to the creature’s tissues, habitat and needs, but as
we approach the vertebrates and especially the mammals there can be
little doubt that it is mainly a matter of environment and association;
in other words, that it is accounted for by the color of food, the
color of blood and the color of the chief secondary sexual characters.
Let us, however, confine ourselves to man, and consider what are the
chief colored objects that are of most vital concern to the human and
most closely allied species.
One of the earliest groups of such objects--some would say the most
important group in this connection--is that of ripe fruits. Certainly
among the frugivorous apes and among many races of primitive man, the
color of fruits must be a powerful factor in developing a sensibility
for red rays, and in associating such sensibility with emotional
satisfaction. The color of fruits is most generally red, orange or
purple, and since purple is largely made up of red, it is clear that
the influence of fruits will almost exclusively bear on the rays
of long wave-length. We may reasonably suppose that the search for
fruits acted as an important factor in the development of a special
sensibility for red.
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