COLORATION 57 



ditions, as on animals in captivity, help us more, but must 

 be most carefully scrutinized or they will lead us into 

 error — as has been well shown by McAtee in his paper on 

 *'The experimental method of testing the efficiency of 

 warning and cryptic coloration in protecting animals from 

 their enemies," in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Natural Sciences. Further help, indispensably 

 necessary, must be rendered by first-hand observations of 

 species in their natural surroundings and in their natural 

 conditions. We propose to render a very little help in this 

 way, by recording observations, far from being as extensive 

 as they should be, but faithful and painstaking as far as 

 they go. We wish to give our actual field experiences and 

 observations on the coloration of the big-game animals of 

 Africa, comparing it with the coloration of various other 

 animals, especially the big-game animals of North America, 

 with which we are also familiar at first hand. 



The neo-Darwinian ultra-upholders of the natural selec- 

 tion theory, ranging from Mr. Wallace through Professor 

 Poulton to Mr. Abbott Thayer, all explain almost all the 

 phenomena of animal coloration and of the development of 

 appendages on animals by the theory of natural selection. 

 They hold that almost all the details of an animal's colora- 

 tion, etc., have a direct utilitarian purpose, which they 

 name, and a particular kind of usefulness, which they point 

 out; and they treat these as survival factors. But as re- 

 gards many cases they differ from one another, and indeed 

 contradict one another and take directly opposite views 

 concerning what this useful function is. Mr. Wallace, for 

 instance, believes that many striking markings of a highly 

 advertising quality serve as recognition marks between 



