1904.] PACKARD— ORIGIN OF MARKINGS OF ORGANISMS. 433 



irregularly situated spots lie so cl'ose together that the ground-tone 

 of the coat looks like network. Stanley discovered in Central 

 Africa a variety with large round black spots. The giraffe has been 

 observed to strikingly resemble the dead lichen-covered trunks of 

 last year's mimosa trees, so as to be mistaken for them. (Also see 

 Wallace's Darwinism^ p. 212.) This spotted style of marking 

 merely results, adds Sokolowsky, from a splitting of the original 

 longitudinal stripes due to the great size of the animal. The 

 variety with dark markings is indisputably nearer to the earlier 

 forest form than to the lighter colored form. 



He considers that the lion has descended from ancestors with a 

 ringed kind of marking, as in quite >oung stuffed examples there 

 are ring-like spots on the body. Here we might add that we have 

 observed in the young panther (^F. coficolor) when three months old 

 that the coat is distinctly spotted, showing that it originally was a 

 forest cat, becoming afterward adapted to a life on treeless plains. 



The markings of the zebras, asses and wild horses, as well as 

 antelopes, are discussed at length, the effacement of the primitive 

 stripes being attributed to a life on grassy plains. The Canidae are 

 supposed by our author to have originally been more or less trans- 

 versely striped, cases of partial dorsal striping in Cams 7?iesomelas^ 

 C. azarce, C. lupus, and others being attributed to reversion. 



In foxes this is seen, especially the cross fox, which bears a dark 

 dorsal stripe with darker transverse bands on the shoulders. 



13. PCECILOGENY IN ZeBKAS AND AFRICAN AnTELOPES DUE TO 



THE Action of Light and Shade. 



As has been observed by several hunters and naturalists, the zebra 

 is rendered nearly indistinguishable, when swiftly running, by the 

 blending of the bars and stripes. Prof. Ewart states that the lion 

 is the most inveterate enemy of the zebra, which is protected by 

 its style of coloration as well as the rapidity of its movements. 

 There is no animal, he says, which could turn about and break into 

 a trot so quickly as the zebra. He points out that the stripes of the 

 zebra are undoubtedly protective, causing the animal to become 

 indistinguishable at a comparatively short distance. This he has 

 experimentally proved by tying ribbons upon a dun-colored pony 

 so as to break up the uniform coloration, the result being that the 

 pony thus rendered zebra-like in its stripes was similarly indistin- 

 guishable. 



