ACQUIRED SPECIFIC REACTIONS TO COLOR 153 



The problems which are suggested by a study of the disguis- 

 ing reactions of the crab may be grouped as follows: 



(i) By what means or instruments are the foreign bodies 

 made to adhere to the body of the animal ; 



(2) By the action of what stimuli and by the execution of 



what responses is the disguising brought about ; 



(3) What end is sought, what purpose is served or what 



telos is realized by the series of reactions which results 

 in a disguise. 



The third of these questions may, from the author's point 

 of view, be disposed of most easily. If the question means 

 that the crab seeks some end of which it has any consciousness, 

 or that the animal carries out a purpose of which it is dimly 

 aware, the answer is that the crab seeks no end and carries 

 out no purpose. Both end and purpose exist only for the 

 anthropomorphizing human observer. From the point of view 

 of such an observer, the crab does disguise itself, if- to disguise 

 means to alter the normal appearance of the body by the addi- 

 tion of objects which are foreign to it. The change of appear- 

 ance in the body of the crab is the same to a human observer 

 as would result if the animal were actuated by motives similar 

 to those of a human individual consciously seeking to change 

 his appearance with a wig and paint. Furthermore, the sup- 

 posed "choice" of materials of the same color as that of the 

 environment which Minkiewicz claims to ha^e demonstrated, 

 although all other observers have failed to confirm this result, 

 may be explained upon the ground that in the natural habitat, 

 the prevailing color of the environment is due to the most 

 abundant material which, consequently, the crab meets with 

 most frequently. Under the conditions which exist upon the 

 littoral of the sea where the prevalent color tone is due to the 

 most abundant material, the appearance of a harmony between 

 disguise and environment results, which can not be confirmed 

 under experimental conditions. Thus the purposiveness of this 

 "harmony" turns out to be, like the purposiveness of the dis- 

 guise itself, illusory. 



In the experimental work about to be described, the effort 

 was made to answer the first two questions. 



