Such are the families of the bush-shrikes and ant-thrushes (Formicariidae), the tyrant-shrikes (Tyrannidae), the American creepers (Dendrocolaptidae), together with a large proportion of the wood-warblers (Mniotiltidae), the finches, the wrens, and some other groups.

In the eastern hemisphere, also, we have the babbling-thrushes (Timaliidae), the cuckoo-shrikes (Campephagidae), the honey-suckers (Meliphagidae), and several other smaller groups which are certainly not coloured above the average standard of temperate birds.
Again, there are many families of birds which spread over the whole world, temperate and tropical, and among these the tropical species rarely present any exceptional brilliancy of colour.

Such are the thrushes, goatsuckers, hawks, plovers, and ducks; and in the last-named group it is the temperate and arctic zones that afford the most brilliant coloration.
The same general facts are found to prevail among insects.

Although tropical insects present some of the most gorgeous coloration in the whole realm of nature, yet there are thousands and tens of thousands of species which are as dull coloured as any in our cloudy land.

The extensive family of the carnivorous ground-beetles (Carabidae) attains its greatest brilliancy in the temperate zone; while by far the larger proportion of the great families of the longicorns and the weevils, are of obscure colours even in the tropics.