210 Colors of West Coast Mammals. [ZOE 
subject, calls attention to the white upturned tail ofa rabbit, so con- 
spicuous when the animal is retreating from an enemy. He says! 
“For the rabbit is usually a crepuscular animal, feeding soon after 
sunset or on moonlight nights. When disturbed or alarmed it makes 
for its burrow, and the white upturned tails of those in front serve as 
guides and signals to those more remote from home, to the young | 
and the feeble; and thus each following the one or two before it, all 
are able with the least possible delay to regain a place of compara- 
tive safety. The apparent danger, therefore, becomes a most im- 
portant means of security.’’ 
It will be well to inquire right here whether natural selection can 
ever be socialistic or communistic in its operation. Itseems inevitable 
that only from a teleological point of view can it be conceived as 
such. If some overlooking power can be imagined doing the select- _ 
ing, it might be supposed that it would direct matters so that the 
strong might aid the weak, but this is in direct opposition to the 
doctrine of the survival of the fittest, which has for its motto: “ Each 
one for himself,” etc. The rabbit having the most conspicuous 
white upturned tail would be individually at a great disadvantage in 
the struggle for existence, for, while he might be of very material 
assistance in leading his less conspicuously marked associates out of 
danger, he would himself be at a positive disadvantage, and the 
variation, it would seem, could hardly be favored by natural selec- 
tion. Having no theory to offer in the place of the pre-existing 
one, I am loath to call attention to this difficulty, but the wonder i is 
that it has so long escaped notice. 
There is every reason to suppose that these markings were origin-_ 
ated to facilitate the recognition of individuals, but if such is the _ 
case it seems to require a new explanation. There are two quite | 
distinct classes of recognition markings, which neither Wallace nor — 
Todd have differentiated. The first class includes those markings _ 
which enable individuals of the same species to recognize their fel- 
lows and thus escape from a common danger or combine against a 
common enemy. For these markings we may borrow the name 
given by Todd for recognition markings in general, viz: directive — 
coloration. The other class includes all markings which enable one | 
species to distinguish its own kind from allied species. These | 
markings might be appropriately called discriminative markings. 
The validity of this second class is in a large measure dependent 
