402 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



the animals of a species haunting dark thickets or sombre woods take 

 on a darker hue than those of their kind in more open country. 

 A similar environment may produce similar colouration in widely 

 different parts of the world in creatures of different genus. Food 

 may also affect colour. 



We see so many shades of difference in colour and colouration 

 between individuals of one species, and even of one herd, that sub- 

 specific distinctions based on such differences must be entirely fallaci- 

 ous, although scientific naturalists appear to be so greatly addicted to 

 the adoption of sub-specific nomenclature on the slenderest grounds 

 of this nature. It is interesting to note that lower animals and birds 

 undergo greater change during the breeding season than mammalia. 

 At the same time some antelopes change colour considerably at 

 certain periods of the year. The black buck's jet black coat becomes 

 a dull dark-brown. 



With regard to protective colouration, Mr. Selous very truly writes 

 that well-known naturalists appear to assume "that both carnivorous 

 and herbivorous animals trust entirely to their sense of sight, the 

 former to find their prey and the latter to avoid the approach of their 

 enemies." But I must join issue with him when he says that 

 " nothing is more certain than that all carnivorous animals hunt almost 

 entirely by scent." In my experience neither the tiger nor panther 

 hunt by scent, but depend almost entirely on sight and perhaps 

 hearing. This has been proved time and again by these beasts of 

 prey passing close to buffaloes or goats, tied up as bait, without 

 seeing them, owing to the bait having made neither sound nor 

 movement. I have known many occasions when a tiger has passed 

 close to an animal thus tied up, and has killed another a few hun- 

 dred yards farther on. For this reason, that they hunt by sight 

 and not by scent, one ties up the bait on or near a path or water- 

 course or near a pool of water, so that the prowling tiger may come 

 upon it in the course of his nightly wanderings, 'ihe African 

 hunter tells us that the zebra's stripes do not assimilate well with its 

 surroundings, except at dawn and late in the evening. But striped 

 forms, such as the tiger, certainly blend remarkably with moonlight 

 or the dusk of early night and dawn. There is a wonderful instance 

 of colouration blending with the surroundings in a photograph of 

 8omali giraffes, taken by Lord Delamere and reproduced in Mr. 



