THE WAVELENGTH SENSITIVITY FUNCTION FOR THE ZEBRA FINCH

Abstract

With lights of different spectral compositions filtered from a white, the flicker response contours for the zebra finch are found to exhibit the same general kind of relationship between flicker excitation and wavelength as is found in the case of man ("cone" contours), with the same filters. The flicker contours for the zebra finch are simplex; the retina contains no rods. On a relative energy scale, with a flash cycle of fixed light-time percentage (10 per cent) the curve for yellow almost coincides with that for the white, the curve for red lies at much higher intensities, and the curves for blue-green and violet fall below that for the white by amounts increasing in that order. The maxima to which the curves rise and the slope constants are very nearly the same for all the spectral regions. For the bird the blue was a little less efficient, the green a little more efficient, and the red very much less efficient than in the case of man. It was deduced that in the retina of this diurnal bird the number of red oil globules should be comparatively small and that most of the globules should be greenish yellow. This was confirmed by direct examination.