542 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
colour consideration, cannot be regarded in itself as any evidence of 
conscious resemblance. For example: if we break a piece off a 
termite-heap and see that the inmates at once run back into the nest 
or avail themselves of the nearest cover they can find, we cannot 
assume that this is due to their intelligent recognition that their 
colours are out of harmony with their then surroundings, but we should 
rather attribute it to the instinctive avoidance of light shown by all 
such nocturnal creatures, an instinct which is preferably explained by 
natural selection.° 
As a matter of fact, the most satisfactory style of evidence would 
probably consist in a careful and exact observation of the demeanour 
of protectively-coloured animals, which find themselves, by a natural 
accident or necessity, in an environment to which their colour is 
quite unsuited ; or, conversely, of the behaviour of striking sports or 
variations of such species, when occurring in their normal surround- 
ings. If, in such cases, the animals show a distinct appreciation 
of the danger of their position and alter their normal habits accord- 
ingly, then the suggestion of active mimicry will be sufficiently 
proved, so far as those animals and their immediate allies are 
concerned. But if, on the other hand, they show no such appre- 
ciation and merely adopt their usual attitudes of concealment, which 
in that case would egregiously fail in their purpose, then this sug- 
gestion will be very strongly discounted. It seems that a careful 
collection and discussion of all the authenticated observations of 
this description would add considerably to our knowledge of animal 
psychology. Perhaps, however, this has been already done, for it is 
impossible to keep abreast of scientific thought and work when living 
on the very outskirts of civilisation. I may here refer to one or two 
examples of this kind which tend to show that many cases of protective 
actions on the part of the higher vertebrates must be attributed to 
UNREASONING INSTINCT rather than to conscious volition. 
The late Mr. Romanes very truly remarked, that ‘‘ Every sportsman 
must have noticed that the somewhat rare melanic variety of the 
common Rabbit will crouch as steadily as the normal brownish-grey 
type, notwithstanding that, owing to its normal colour, a ‘mgger 
rabbit’ thus renders itself the most conspicuous object in the land- 
scape. In all such cases, of course, there has been a deviation from 
the normal type in respect of colour, with the result that the inherited 
instinct is no longer in tune with the other endowments of the animal” 
(‘Darwin and after Darwin,’ p. 320). Again, to quote Mr. Distant 
himself, in reference to the crouching habits of the South African 
Francolinus, he says: ‘‘ Subsequently I observed how this action 
