SOME NA TURE NOTES. 403 



Tivdekker's Game Animals of Africa. The giraffes are feeding ainong 

 mimosa trees, from which it is diffioult to distinguish them. Mr. 

 Selons considers that this plu)togra[)h, which eliminates colour, is 

 niisleading ; and that the animals cannot constantly live among 

 mimosa trees, which are scarce. But Sir Samuel Baker wrote many 

 vears ago with regard to this animal. "It is exceedingly deceptive 

 in appearance when t'ouml in its native forests. The red-harked 

 mimosa, which is its favourite food, seldom grows higher than 

 fourteen or fifteen feet. Many woods are almost entirely composed 

 of these trees, upon the flat heads of which the giraffe can feed when 

 looking downwards. I have frequently heen mistaken when remark- 

 ing some particular dead tree stem at a distance, that appeared like a 

 decayed relic of the forest, until, upon nearer approach, I have been 

 struck by the peculiar inclination of the trunk ; suddenly it, has 

 started into movement and disappeared." So the photograph 

 appears in this instance to be remarkably true to life. 



1 have observed the adaptation of colour to environment especially 

 in the desert-born, such as in Baluchistan, where one sees marklior, 

 oorial, chikor, see-see partridges, desert larks, and in fact all the 

 dwellers of the wilderness taking the hue of their surroundinos. 

 The protective theory has been carried to an absurd extent by some 

 natiu'alists, as when it has been suggested that the melanism of the 

 black panther of Java is for the purpose of facilitating the chase of 

 the black apes on which it preys. The observations of most ex- 

 perienced field naturalists more probably will lead them to believe 

 that colour and colouration are chiefly affected by environment, and 

 that protection is less a cause than an effect. 



The carnivorous animals of Africa and India appear to be alike in 

 Ijeing seldom seen in the daytime, as they are nocturnal in their 

 habits. In all his wide experience Mr. Selous has only once seen a 

 lion himting by daylight. I have known tigers kill by daylight on 

 several occasions : once when I was sittiuf; at breakfast at 9 o'clock 

 in the morning a tiger killed one of mv Ijuffaloes within a hundred 

 yards, an;l in sight of my tent. This was in the hot weather, and I 

 recollect another kill taking place by day at the same season, in 

 the cold weather, however, it is not uncommon to hear «jf 

 tigers attacking cattle in the daytime. In describing the lion's 

 method of hunting, the African sportsman says : " They seek their 



