32 CHELTENHAM COLLEGE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
3. Epigamic Colours, or colours displayed in courtship. 
This last we have not to deal with, as the most striking instances 
are from America; but the bright colours of the upper side of 
butterflies wings in the males may be taken as example, while the 
underside serves for protection. 
Returning to the First Group, the protective resemblance, we have 
to notice in Ornithology the striking resemblance in the colour of 
partridges to heather ; how difficult it is for the eye to follow them in 
their flight over the dark crimson masses. 
The colours of birds’ eggs form an interesting subject. Most of 
the eggs that are concealed in holes away from the light are white, 
Some of those that are exposed only to a small amount of light are 
pale bluish green as the Starlings’ or Redstarts’, while the Jackdaws’ 
are the same ground tint with darker blotches, and the eggs of Tits 
are white with small reddish brown spots. The Larks’ and 
Nightingales’ eggs closely resemble their surroundings. Thus those 
eggs which do not need to be protectively coloured are white. The 
eggs of the Domestic Fowl are in no need of protection and so have 
not retained the brown colour they originally possessed, and which is 
still the colour of the eggs of the Asiatic Jungle Fowl, the ancestor of 
our Domestic Fowls. 
A hare sitting motionless resembles closely a lump of earth or a 
heap of soil like a mole hill. 
Lizards resemble the general appearance of their surroundings 
when remaining motionless upon a bank, but immediately they move 
the eye is attracted to them and the colours are seen not to be those 
of the ground. 
Newts are brightest underneath, but seen from above they are 
hard to distinguish as they slowly skim over the muddy bottom of the 
pond. The underside is very conspicuous with its bright orange. 
Fish are generally lighter underneath than above, as the Whiting 
(Gadus merlangus), the Mackerel (Scomber scomber), and Herrings 
(Clupea harengus). Seen from below the fish is inconspicuous against 
the sky and seen from above the darker shades harmonise with the 
rocks or sand at the bottom of the sea. 
The Nudibranchs or Sea Slugs which are to be found on rocks 
near low water mark when they come up to spawn are well protected, 
The Doris tuberculata is inconspicuous with its brown shades on the 
rocks ; but the Eolis Drummondii is perhaps more protected by habit 
and powers of defence than by colour, but I have thought it best to 
insert it here as it is allied to the Doris. It buries its body in the sand 
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