ee : Colors of West Coast Mammals. <~ [zor ea 
~ usually found in a region of black volcanic rock, so that its colors 
have been assumed for protective reasons, in order to conform with | 
the general color of its environment. The explanation seems per- 
- fectly simple—individual variation upon which natural selecti 
worked; or rather, as Lloyd Morgan has well shown,* natural e 
ination. But it must again be asked: what has directed the va- 
riation along a certain line? This question has been well dis- 
cussed in a recent book by Schurman, entitled the “Ethical Import 
of Darwinism,” and I think that any who may peruse its pages will 
admit its force. Suppose we have a mixture of light and dark 
ground squirrels, and the light ones, being more conspicuous by 
contrast with a dark background, are killed off. Why, then, should 
even a part of the descendants of those remaining be darker than 
the darkest of.their parents? I am not referring to fortuitous varia- 
tion which produces “sports,”’ the characters of which may be inheri- 
ted and produce a new species, but to that comparatively slight 
individual variation which is always present. We can well under- 
stand how a particular kind of food might possibly influence a color, 
but this color would not, except by the merest accident, bear any 
relation to the color of the environment, and consequently could not 
result in a protectively marked race. The whole subject reduces 
itself to this: Is it possible for any character, however slight it may 
be, not produced by use’ and disuse or the direct action of environ- 
ment, and which was not present in some ancestor, either near or 
remote, to appear in an offspring? 
In the case of our Lower Californian ground squirrel, it may be 
assumed, what there is every reason to believe is the case, that its 
ancestors from remote times have been some shade of brown or 
gray, but never black. Use and disuse is, of course, entirely out 
of the question in regard to color, while it is evident that no pos- 
sible direct action of the environment, either food or climate, 
could produce black. “Where then did the black come from? In 
an article on the Factors of Evolution} Prof. Jos. Le Conte makes 
a suggestion, which we may find of use in answering this question. 
He says: “In sexual generation, on the contrary, the characters 
of two diverse individuals are funded in a common offspring; and 
* Animal Life and Intelligence, p. 79. 
tMonist, i, p. 323. 
