Chap. XVIII. SPOTS AND STRIPES. 303 



habits of life with their parents, and yet are coloured 

 in a different manner, it may be inferred that they have 

 retained the colouring of some ancient and extinct 

 progenitor. In the family of pigs, and in the genua 

 Tapir, the young are marked with longitudinal stripes, 

 and thus differ from every existing adult species in 

 these two groups. With many kinds of deer the 

 young are marked with elegant white spots, of which 

 their parents exhibit not a trace. A graduated series 

 can be followed from the Axis deer, both sexes of 

 which at all ages and during all seasons are beau- 

 tifully spotted (the male being rather more strongly 

 coloured than the female) — to species in which neither 

 the old nor the young are spotted. I will specify 

 some of the steps in this series. The Mantchurian 

 deer (Cervus Mantchuricus) is spotted during the wliole 

 year, but the spots are much plainer, as I have seen 

 in the Zoological Gardens, during the summer, when the 

 general colour of the coat is lighter, than during the 

 winter, when the general colour is darker and the horns 

 are fully developed. In the hog-deer (Hyelaphus 'por- 

 cinus) the spots are extremely conspicuous during the 

 summer when the coat is reddisli-brown, but quite dis- 

 appear during the winter when the coat is brown.*^ 

 In both these species the young are spotted. In the 

 Virginian deer the young are likewise spotted, and 

 about five per cent, of the adult animals living in 

 Judge Caton's park, as I am informed by him, tem- 

 porarily exhibit at the period when the red summer 

 coat is being replaced by the bluish winter coat, a row 

 of spots on each flank, which are always the same in 



'•'> Dr. Gray, ' Gleanings from the Menagerie of Knowsley,' p. G4. 

 Mr. Blyth, in speaking ('Land and Water,' 1869, p. 42) of tlie hog- 

 deer of Ceylon, says it is more brightly spotted with white tlian the 

 common hog-deer, at the season when it renews its horns. 



