BUI.LETIN UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 



Animal Counterfeits. 



Maurice Ricker. 



I have previously told of the marvelous adaptations of plants and ani- 

 mals. We have been duly impressed with the perfect harmony of adjust- 

 ment and are prepored to examine into the more intricate relations ex- 

 isting between them. Let us keep in mind the universal struggle for 

 food, the great loss of life in immature stages, and the tendency to varia- 

 tion. We believe that whatever variation tends to perpetuate the life 

 of an individual, or to render it less liable to annoyance in procuring food, 

 will prove of advantage to the race, since this variation tends to be trans- 

 mitted to the offspring. 



Truly, might an animal exclaim, "This is a world of shams." "Every- 

 one is seeking to deceive." Aesop's fable of the "Ass in the Lion's Skin," 

 is a tame story compared with the one we may see in nature any summer 

 afternoon. For, in the fable, the ass masqueraded but for a day while in 

 nature we find animals whose ancestors, for a thousand generations, have 

 carried out their hypocrisy for a life time. 



The simplest example, and one which every one has observed a great 

 many times, is called protective coloration. Upon the success with 

 Avhich an animal can become apparently a part of the general landscape 

 depends his very existence. The lessons we have all had when seeking 

 some wild animal have fixed this principle well in our minds. 



I remember once seeing a young spotted sandpiper on a rocky sandbar 

 in a small sti'eam. I went over to pick him up, when, as if by magic, he 

 disappeared. In vain did I search and, for all I know, the little rascal 

 is hiding there yet. He was no doubt sitting motionless among the rocks, 

 and my eye was not keen enough to discern him among the light and 

 shade. of the pebbles. If animals are not wholly devoid of humor, what 

 a good joke it must be — this game of hide and seek of theirs. 



But it is serious business. It is in reality a game with the player's 

 life at stake. If he wins he lives to perfect his art and practice his pro- 

 fession of a counterfeiter. If he lacks confidence in his own game and 

 betrays by a move the fact that he is not a part of the inanimate land- 

 scape, he pays the penalty with his life. If through variation he happens 

 to be more conspicuous than his type he stands a much greater chance of 

 being picked up l)y his enemies. Thus nature would check a tendency 

 to more conspicuous colors. 



A few words on color in general may not be out of place. Scientists 

 now find significance in nearly all coloration. At one time it would have 

 been sacriligious to have found other reasons for nature as it is, than as 

 a creation solely and wholly for man's pleasure. I, for one, do not be- 

 lieve that man's reverence for nature or nature's God is any the less deep, 

 for what may be called a more modern view. The true dignity of man 

 and his exalted place in the universe is not lowered by this conception 



