1904.] PACKARD— ORIGIN OF MARKINGS OF ORGANISMS. 431 



became adapted to it. " Nature," he says, " has settled this ques- 

 tion with masterly skill. She dissolved the longitudinal stripes into 

 spotted markings by interrupting the separate longitudinal lines. 

 .... The advantage of this kind of marking is this, that the whole 

 impression of the animal's form is broken up by the many interrup- 

 tions of the ground coloring by means of the spots, and therefore 

 the particular animal is lost to sight in the confusion of light and 

 shade in the forest." 



This process of development of spots is especially seen in the 

 Carnivora and more particularly in the Viverridae, which date back 

 to the Miocene Tertiary. These forms still possess the traces of the 

 more primitive longitudinal striping, as seen in Viverra sc/i/ege/i, in 

 which there are plain longitudinal dorsal stripes. In Viverra indica 

 the spots are arranged in longitudinal rows, which are still partly 

 connected on the back, and form short longitudinal lines. In V. 

 getietta are traces of the primitive longitudinal lines. All these 

 animals prefer bushy regions. The larger Carnivora, /.^., the 

 Felidae, inhabit not the deep, dark forest, but the edge of the 

 woods near the banks of the rivers, where they have become 

 adapted in coloration to the " luxuriant chaos " of lights and 

 shadows. '* As eye-witnesses report, the form of the leopard, for 

 example, is so dissolved by means of the variegated parti-colored 

 ring-like markings that it becomes difficult even for the accustomed 

 eye of a native of these regions to perceive the animal in the leafy 

 confusion." The evolution of the ringed marking has perhaps 

 originated from both forms of marking, the longitudinal stripes and 

 the spots, and is discussed at some length by the author. He sup- 

 poses that the rings are caused by a subdivision of the single spots. 

 Thus in the ocelot the longitudinal stripes may have split lengthwise 

 and formed rings by their falling apart into sections which again 

 divide into dots. Whether the markings of the tiger arose from the 

 dissolving of the horizontal cross partitions (seen in F. nebulosa) 

 or were formed by the blending of spots lying on top of each other 

 is, he thinks, an open question, yet it is a fact that the markings of 

 the tiger show rings which are arranged both vertically and length- 

 wise. Eimer regards the transverse stripes as due to a blending of 

 the spots in a vertical direction. The origin of transverse series of 

 spots from longitudinal stripes is clearly seen in the ontogeny of 

 Dataiia major. (See my monograph of bombycine moths, Pt. I, PL 

 XII, and Pt. II, p. 8, 1905.) 



