302 NATURAL SCIENCE. November. 1896. 



the enemy sails overhead may, I think, be assumed to be precisely 

 that of the chameleon with its eye fixed on me. Can it be doubted 

 that some physical influence is being exerted by its consciousness on 

 its skin, and if on the skin, then on the feathers growing out of it ? 

 It may be objected that the feathers are mere dead matter, beyond 

 the reach of any vital influence, but that is not true of them while 

 they are growing. That it is true after they are matured suggests a 

 reason why any effect produced on the quail by its own consciousness 

 should be permanent, and not merely temporary, as in the chameleon. 

 Bird fanciers redden the colour of canaries by feeding them with 

 cayenne pepper while their feathers are growing. When the feathers 

 are mature the eff"ect will become permanent, but further treatment 

 of the same kind will cease to produce any result. So there is 

 nothing in the present state of our knowledge to forbid the idea that 

 the colour of a quail may be permanently affected by the condition of 

 mind in which it passes so much of its time when young, viz., lying 

 close and wishing not to be seen. And is there anything to forbid us 

 inferring from the case of the chameleon that the change may consist 

 in assimilation to the colours of surrounding objects, which in the 

 case of the quail are pretty much the same always ? The change 

 may be so slight as to be quite imperceptible, but " by frequent 

 reiteration during numberless generations " (the words are Darwin's) 

 it may bring about that characteristic disposition of browns and 

 yellows which makes most ground birds so difficult to see upon the 

 ground. And it may be one of the principal influences that have 

 been operative in bringing about many protective resemblances and 

 mimicries. I referred to the tendency of Darwinism to lead its 

 devotees into a very materialistic way of regarding animals. It will 

 be difficult for those who have succumbed to that influence to allow 

 so much significance to the consciousness of a mere insect, or even a 

 bird, as my suggestions imply ; but is it not possible that we have 

 been all along underrating the degree of intelligence exercised by 

 even the lowest animals in the direction of their lives, and so turning 

 away our attention from a factor which is certainly there and may 

 have had an unsuspected share in the evolution of animal forms ? 

 There are two faculties which broadly distinguish animal from vege- 

 table life, namely, perception and action consequent on perception, in 

 other words, the exercise of mind ; and it seems to me that it is to 

 these that we should first look for an explanation of any phenomenon 

 which, like mimicry, prevails widely in the animal, but scarcely, if at 

 all, in the vegetable kingdom. 



EHA. 



