INTRODUCTORY. 31 



maim, are, many of them at any rate, capable of explanation 

 on the theory that the markings of the young are a sur- 

 vival of a form of coloration that was once useful, but lias 

 ceased to be so ; but this explanation is obviously much 

 strained if it be applied, for instance, to the gulls. Further- 

 more, while it is quite intelligible that the remains of traces of 

 longitudinal striping upon the very young, and therefore very 

 small, Sphinx larva? could do no harm, it is not obvious that 

 the persistence of analogous conditions in large mammals 

 would be equally harmless ; it might have been expected, 

 therefore, that the spots or stripes would have been entirely 

 lost in the young. There, again, it must be of course borne in 

 mind that evolution is not at a standstill ; perhaps, if we 

 knew it, there is an elimination of the spotted cubs of Garni vora 

 going on. The whole matter, like the problems of animal 

 coloration in general, presents us with an involved and 

 complicated question, to which the answer is probably no more 

 simple. 



Absence of Brilliant Coloration among Mammals. 



In view of the theories which have been advanced with 

 regard to sexual selection, it is, as M. Stolzman has pointed 

 out, a remarkable fact that brilliant colours are wanting in the 

 Mammalia. To this rule there are no conspicuous exceptions ; 

 the sternal callosities and naked patches about the face of 

 monkeys are often red or blue, and some of the fruit bats have 

 as bright a coloration as can be got from a contrast of black, 

 orange, and white ; but there is no mammal which can 

 compare in point of brilliancy and variety of colour with even 

 such a comparatively plain bird as the chaffinch. The colours 

 of mammals are generally confined to dull shades of black, 

 brown, orange, and white. Considering the supposed ad- 



