The Splendor of Iridescence

Book excerpt: A remarkable aspect of this book is its combination of art and science. The author, an accomplished professional artist in the field of natural history, particularly in drawings of birds and insects, is the daughter of a scientist who specialized in optics and was an authority on light interference, the optical phenomenon which plays an important role here. It was this background which enabled the author to approach the subject in a refreshingly original way. What makes a blue bird blue? Why is its color fundamentally different from that of a red bird? What causes the iridescence of a hummingbird's throat? of a peacock's train? of a Morpho butterfly's wings? Why do so many brightly colored birds in museum collections soon fade to a dim washed-out hue, while the hummingbird and the peacock retain their brilliance almost indefinitely? Here we touch on the fundamental difference between structural and pigmentary, physical and chemical colors - a difference which is the main theme of this book - and the various ways in which these structural colors are produced in the tissues of living beings. Also unusual are the means and method of illustration and reproduction. Most illustrators desiring colored reproductions of their art paint colored pictures, and then turn these paintings over to the engraver or lithographer, who uses elaborate cameras with filters to separate the colors so that they can be printed in different inks. Instead of relying on mechanical filters, Hilda Simon translates in her mind each color into the percentages of its component colors. She then prepares in black pencil one separation for each of the four or five colors used in her illustrators. The results are astonishing and original. She has captured some of the most elusive colors as no other process can. Here are to be found, in scientific analysis and microscopic detail of feather structure as well as in all their glory, birds of all sorts from hummingbirds and sunbirds to peacocks, the fabled birds of Juno, and birds of paradise. Here we see the quetzal, symbol of ancient Aztec royalty and emblem of modern Guatemala. Here is a glittering array of iridescent tropical butterflies and moths, golden beetles that gleam like living embers, multicolored fish, shimmering opalescent shells, and even rainbow-hued snakes. -- from dust jacket.