220 
DARWINISM 
CHAP. 
It is interesting to note that these markings for recognition 
are very slightly developed in the antelopes of the woods and 
marshes. Thus, the grys-bok is nearly uniform in colour, except 
the long black-tipped ears ; and it frequents the wooded moun¬ 
tains. The duyker-bok and the rhoode-bok are wary bush- 
haunters, and have no marks but the small white patch 
behind. The wood-haunting bosch-bok goes in pairs, and has 
hardly any distinctive marks on its dusky chestnut coat, but 
the male alone is horned. The large and handsome koodoo 
frequents brushwood, and its vertical white stripes are no 
doubt protective, while its magnificent spiral horns afford easy 
recognition. The eland, which is an inhabitant of the open 
country, is uniformly coloured, being sufficiently recognisable 
by its large size and distinctive form; but the Derbyan eland 
is a forest animal, and has a protectively striped coat. In like 
manner, the fine Speke’s antelope, which lives entirely in the 
swamps and among reeds, has pale vertical stripes on the 
sides (protective), with white markings on face and breast for 
recognition. An inspection of the figures of antelopes and 
other animals in Wood’s Natural History , or in other illustrated 
works, will give a better idea of the peculiarities of recognition 
markings than any amount of description. 
Other examples of such coloration are to be seen in the 
dusky tints of the musk-sheep and the reindeer, to whom 
recognition at a distance on the snowy plains is of more 
importance than concealment from their few enemies. The 
conspicuous stripes and bands of the zebra and the quagga arc 
probably due to the same cause, as may be the singular crests 
and face-marks of several of the monkeys and lemurs . 1 
1 It may he thought that such extremely conspicuous markings as those of 
the zebra would be a great danger in a country abounding witli lions, leopards, 
and other beasts of prey ; but it is not so. Zebras usually go in bands, and 
are so swift and wary that they are in little danger during the day. It is in 
the evening, or on moonlight nights, when they go to drink, that they are chiefly 
exposed to attack; and Mr. Francis Galton, who has studied these animals in their 
native haunts, assures me, that in twilight they are not at all conspicuous, 
the stripes of white and black so merging together into a gray tint that it is 
very difficult to see them at a little distance. We have here an admirable 
illustration of how a glaringly conspicuous style of marking for recognition may 
be so arranged as to become also protective at the time when protection is 
most needed ; and we may also learn how impossible it is for us to decide 
on the inutility of any kind of coloration without a careful study of the 
habits of the species in its native country. 
