THE COLORATION OF LARGE ANIMALS 15 



near relatives the bongo, the kudu, and the elands, are 

 characterised, as a rule, by having the whole body marked by 

 narrow white stripes, which are, for the most part, vertical 

 (although in some cases they form a kind of network) 

 upon a fawn or rufous ground. And these animals, as is 

 attested by the large size of their ears, are chiefly dwellers 

 in forest. Directly, however, any member of the group has 

 left the forest for more open country, as in the case of the 

 Cape eland and the Cape bushbuck, the stripes more or 

 less gradually disappear. Further, those species which 

 inhabit the densest forest have their colours the most 

 brilliantly developed, as is well exemplified in the case of 

 the lesser and the greater kudu, the former of which is 

 more of a forest animal than the latter. One of the 

 most brilliantly coloured of all is the bongo of the 

 equatorial forests. 



Clearly, then, narrow vertical white stripes on a fawn 

 or chestnut ground, which we have reason to regard as a 

 very primitive type of animal coloration, are connected 

 with a forest life, and the presumption is that they are 

 of a protective nature. Confirmation of this view — if con- 

 firmation be needed — is afforded by two animals belonging 

 to widely different groups — namely, Grevy's zebra and the 

 Somali giraffe. The former of these animals differs from 

 all its kindred by its enormous and heavily fringed ears, 

 and these proclaim it to be a dweller in brushwood or 

 forest rather than in open plains, a supposition which 

 receives definite confirmation by the photographs taken 

 during Lord Delamere's East African journey. But 

 Grevy's zebra likewise differs from all its kindred by the 

 extreme narrowness of its stripes, white stripes alternating 

 with black ones of the same width. Here, then, narrow 

 white stripes are clearly an adaptation to a forest life. And 



