115 

 MARVELS OF COLOUR IN THE ANIMAL WORLD. 



A very interesting and instructive popular science lecture was 

 delivered by Prof. Prince, Commissioner of Fisheries, in St. James' 

 Hall, under the auspices of the "United King's Daughters," on the 

 26th March. 



The Chairman, Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, K.C.M.G., introduced 

 the lecturer in his usual happy manner. The lecturer, after explaining 

 the decomposition of light, went on to show that white animals and 

 silvery creatures, like fishes, illustrated specular reflection. Striated 

 surfaces broke up sunlight into prismatic colours, and produced in the 

 feathers of birds, wing-cases of insects, pearly shells, etc., most gorgeous 

 hues. Similar tints might be due to whac the physicist calls " thin 

 plates," instances of which occur in jelly-fishes and many glassy marine 

 animals. One of the most frequent causes of colour was pigments or 

 actual colouring matter in the tissues, in the skin, hair, or feathers. Three 

 forms of pigments might be distinguished, viz : minute corpuscles, 

 capable of expansion and contraction and usually stellate in shape, or 

 larger masses called chromatophores, with muscle and nerve supply and 

 controlled by the optic ganglion or, finally, a fluid bathing the tissues 

 in the form of a dye. External conditions affected the pigment, the 

 coloured particles altering their shape, and quickly changing the colour of 

 the skin, as in the chameleon. 



Most interesting examples of colour were found in very young 

 animals. By studying them we gained information about adult colours. 

 Animals are usually colourless in the earliest days of their existence^ 

 Amongst worms, insects, crustaceans, ascidians, fishes, reptiles, birds 

 and even the highest animals there is a time when they are colourless 

 and wormlike in form. The surface of the sea is a vast nursery for 

 young creatures of various idnds exhibiting these characters. When, at 

 a certain stage, colour appears, it is found to correspond to the form of 

 the body. It occurs as repeated stripes or patches. A young cod, for 

 instance, when three days old, is an insignificant eel-like creature, trans- 

 parent and with four bold stripes of black on the sides of the body_ 

 These stripes later break up into spots. This spotted or striped character 

 prevails amongst myriads of young animals. Wild pigs when young are 



