COLORATION 121 



livery is past/' "because natural selection no longer re- 

 wards those individuals in which the livery is best de- 

 veloped." 



This is the best presentation of the theory of the natural- 

 selectionists. If only the fallow deer and axis were con- 

 sidered, it would seem convincing. But it breaks down 

 completely when other deer, the majority of deer, are con- 

 sidered; for although they still live in the cover afforded 

 by vegetation, and are descended from spotted forms, the 

 adults, in the large majority of the species, have lost their 

 spots. Take the abundant and widely spread white-tailed 

 deer of America, which, in its various forms, extends from 

 the northern isotherm marking the northern range of the 

 fallow deer to the tropics, between the isotherms in which 

 the axis dwells. The fawns are spotted; doubtless the 

 adult ancestral whitetails were spotted; the whitetails 

 live now in just such cover as do the fallow deer and axis; 

 and yet they have lost their spots and are solid-colored 

 above. It seems incredible that natural selection can be 

 responsible for both of two such diametrically opposite re- 

 sults; and, of course, if being spotted tends to conceal the 

 deer, then the loss of the spots cannot have been due to 

 natural selection making for a concealing coloration. This 

 is self-evident. The red deer, which lives in the same 

 country as the fallow deer, and the sambur, which lives in 

 the same country as the axis, have also both lost their 

 spots in the adult forms. All these deer have substantially 

 the same foes; wolves or wild dogs, and the big cats. If 

 a spotted coat really is concealing, then surely natural selec- 

 tion ought not to have eliminated it in the great majority 

 of the deer, as it has actually done. 



