140 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



of a coloration which, at least relatively, is concealing; and 

 neither type of coloration seems to have any efifect on the 

 habits or success in life of the wearer. Evidently natural 

 selection has failed to find any one of these colors or pat- 

 terns a survival factor so far as squirrels are concerned. 

 The same statement applies to various other families; to 

 most weasels for instance. But rabbits, although when in 

 motion they have a highly advertising rear-end coloration, 

 have a concealing coloration when they crouch motionless ; 

 and the way they lay their ears back and sink to the ground 

 shows that they desire to take advantage of every circum- 

 stance that will enable them to elude observation. 



As regards all these species, the particular pattern is in 

 all probability not produced by natural selection; but in 

 most cases it certainly appears probable that natural selec- 

 tion has eliminated all variants of an advertising type and 

 all animals whose habits render them unable to take ad- 

 vantage of the natural coloration. The case of the little 

 spotted skunk, the spilogale, as observed by Doctor Hart 

 Merriam, is even more interesting. He writes me as 

 follows : 



Vanishing Power of the Little Spotted Skunks (Spilogale) 



One night in September, 1889, when sleeping deep down in 

 the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, in northern Arizona, near the 

 place where the Hance Trail was afterward built, I was awakened 

 at midnight by a sniffling noise near my head. Sitting up, I real- 

 ized that a small animal was hurrying away. After running about 

 twenty feet it stopped, but I could not see it until it moved; then 

 its color appeared to be grayish and I mistook it for a ring-tailed 

 civet {Bassariscus). I fired, and was surprised to find that I had 

 killed a little spotted skunk {Spilogale). It was so near that I 

 could not understand why I had not seen its white markings. 



