COLORATION 111 



some non-useful reason, without any reference to natural 

 selection. The habits of the hunting-dog forbid the belief 

 that its conspicuous coloration has any effect one way or 

 the other on its success in life, or that it has any survival 

 value such as would give a chance for the working of natu- 

 ral selection. 



There remain the lion, the leopard, and the cheetah. On 

 the whole, as we have said, the lion's coloration, like the 

 cougar's, represents pretty nearly the maximum conceal- 

 ing power for a beast which — unlike the nearly stationary 

 animals or those of narrowly limited habitat — necessarily 

 roves through many and varied kinds of landscape. But 

 there are features of the coloration which are not concealing 

 — the lightish and black-edged patch on the rump, for in- 

 stance — while the black tips of the ears and tail are often 

 the first things to attract attention. Much more impor- 

 tant, however, is the mane. This is always of a somewhat 

 advertising value, and when it is black it has a strongly 

 advertising value. Yet black-maned lions are very fine 

 and powerful beasts, at least up to the general level of their 

 kind, as well-fed, and as strong. The fact that a conspicu- 

 ous black-maned male and an inconspicuous maneless male 

 or female do equally well in killing game rather shakes 

 our belief in the survival value of the lion's general conceal- 

 ing coloration. We are inclined, having this fact in view, 

 seriously to doubt whether the lion's coloration is a sur- 

 vival factor, although it is probably, among all the col- 

 orations of all the big cats, bar only the puma, the most 

 effective concealer. Young lions are dimly spotted and 

 striped ; probably the lion comes from a spotted and striped 

 ancestral form. The loss of the spots is ascribed by natural- 



