180 ANIMAL COLORATION. 



these, however, are bv no means always animals that it 



t> / 



would be obviously dangerous to meddle with. 



Mr. Salvin described and figured some years ago * a con- 

 spicuous black and white squirrel from the Arm Islands. 

 An arboreal mammal of this colour would under most circum- 

 stances be conspicuous ; it would be interesting to ascertain 

 if there were any objectionable qualities such as to render it 

 distasteful. 



The curious little marsupial, Myrmecobius is as conspicuously 

 coloured as any other mammal, except perhaps such as are 

 black and white. It possesses a complicated glandular 

 apparatus situated upon the under surface of the thorax, t 

 which may possible secrete an offensive fluid ; but this is 

 simple guessing, as nothing is known of the nature of the 

 secretion and its uses. Such glands are very common among 

 the Mammalia, and it is quite likely that in certain cases 

 they may, as in the skunk, secrete a nauseous fluid. It cannot 

 be said that a conspicuous coloration is always associated 

 with the presence of these glands ; but they may even possess 

 one function in one animal and a different one in another. 

 I have referred to them in another connection on p. 177. 



Warning Coloration in Reptiles. 



In the hotter parts of Xorth America a large lizard (Helo- 

 derma*) is met with, coloured in the way that is so common 

 among animals which possess some dangerous or distasteful 

 quality. The body is blotched with black and pinkish-yellow, 

 the colours being thus much the same as those of the wasp 

 and the caterpillar of the Cinnabar moth. 



A plan of coloration of this kind might lead to the sup- 



* Proc. Zoo]. Soc., 1858, Plate Ixiii. t /&/., 1887, p. 527. 



