368 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are for the red with blue combination and tlie blue ivitk violet, 

 there being five men to one woman choosing the former, and tJiree 

 men to one woman choosing the latter ; while the most marked 

 feminine preferences are for the lighter red with lighter green, 

 red ivith green, and red with lighter green, there being nearly /otir 

 times as many women as men choosing the former, tunce as many 

 the second, and tivo and a half times as many the last of these 

 three. We observe in these differences the reappearance of the 

 masculine preference for hlue and its related colors, and the 

 feminine preference for red, and also the feminine preference 

 for the lighter colors. The liking for combinations of red with 

 green in their various shades seems also a particularly feminine 

 fondness.* 



In reviewing these results of this popular census of color 

 preferences, it is apparent that while in some directions the con- 

 clusions seem clear, suggestive, and interesting, in others their 

 interpretation and value are at present doubtful or defective. It 

 must, however, be borne in mind that these returns have been 

 gathered among the general public and by only one of several 

 methods ; their full significance can hardly appear before special 

 studies shall have been made of the influences upon color prefer- 

 ences of age and nationality, of education and special artistic 

 endowment, of conventionality and association, and of the many 

 other factors that contribute to the complexity of even the sim- 

 plest aesthetic judgments. For the present, the results are pre- 

 sented as merely an initial contribution to the statistical study of 

 the popular aesthetics of color. 



An interesting case of mimicry is described by Mr. Charles A. Witchell 

 as shown in his brother's Dandie Dinmont terrier, which was in the com- 

 pany of a fine mastiff for a short time when young. " The little dog was 

 somewhat awed by the great beast, which could easily have made a meal of 

 him; but he was evidently very proud to be allowed to accompany her for 

 a ramble in the country." In a short time he began to try to reproduce 

 her baying, which was much lower in pitch than his bark, and made very 

 great efforts to accomiDlish it, which he finally did very successfully. " He 

 raised his head and uttered a great bark, about an octave in pitch below his 

 usual tone. All his breath was exhausted by the effort, and he immediately 

 coughed, as though his larynx had been strained." Mr. Mitchell also ob- 

 serves that when one of the fish in his aquarium gaped, any other one near 

 would be tolerably certain to gape soon afterward. 



* It is possible to calculate for the men and women separately the tendency to select 

 given colors in the color combinations (irrespective of the colors with which the given color 

 may be combined). Such a comparison yields the conclusion that the colors relatively 

 better represented in the combinations of color than in the single colors are, for the men, 

 blue and violet ; and for the women, lighter red, lighter yellow, and green. 



