Chap. XVIII. Mammals — Spots and Stripes. 543 



house. Such cats, as I have often noticed, are very conspicuous 

 during day ; but as they used to lie in watch during the dusk 

 at the mouths of the burrows, the rabbits apparently did not 

 distinguish them from their parti-coloured brethren. The result 

 was that, within eighteen months, every one of these parti- 

 coloured rabbits was destroyed; and there was evidence that 

 this was effected by the cats. Colour seems to be advantageous 

 to another animal, the skunk, in a manner of which we have had 

 many instances in other classes. No animal will voluntarily 

 attack one of these creatures on account of the dreadful odour 

 which it emits when irritated ; but during the dusk it would not 

 easily be recognised and might be attacked by a beast of prey. 

 Hence it is, as Mr. Belt believes, 37 that the skunk is provided with 

 a great white bushy tail, which serves as a conspicuous warning. 

 Although we must admit that many quadrupeds have received 

 their present tints either as a protection, or as an aid in procuring 

 prey, yet with a host of species, the colours are far too con- 

 spicuous and too singularly arranged to allow us to suppose that 

 they serve for these purposes. We may take as an illustration 

 certain antelopes ; when we see the square white patch on the 

 throat, the white marks on the fetlocks, and the round black 

 spots on the ears, all more distinct in the male of the Portax picta, 

 than in the female ; — when we see that the colours are more 

 vivid, that the narrow white lines on the flank and the broad 

 white bar on the shoulder are more distinct in the male Oreas 

 derby anus than in the female ; — when we see a similar difference 

 between the sexes of the curiously-ornamented Tragelaphus 

 script us (fig. 70), — we cannot believe that differences of this kind 

 are of any service to either sex in their daily habits of life. It 

 seems a much more probable conclusion that the various marks 

 were first acquired by the males and their colours intensified 

 through sexual selection, and then partially transferred to the 

 females. If this view be admitted, there can be little doubt that 

 the equally singular colours and marks of many other antelopes, 

 though common to both sexes, have been gained and transmitted 

 in a like manner. Both sexes, for instance, of the koodoo 

 (Strepsiceros kudu) (fig. 64) have narrow white vertical lines on 

 their hind flanks, and an elegant angular white mark on their 

 foreheads. Both sexes in the genus Damalis are very oddly 

 coloured ; in D. pygarga the back and neck are purplish-red; 

 shading on the flanks into black ; and these colours are abruptly 

 separated from the white belly and from a large white space on 

 the buttocks; the head is still more oddly coloured, a large 

 oblong white mask, narrowly-edged with black, covers the face 

 37 ' The Naturalist in Nicaragua,' p. 249. 



