THE WAY OF THE WILD 75 



most inconspicuous in the greatest variety of surroundings. 1 

 Thus deer and moose feed in safety both in winter and summer 

 where they would be in far more danger if their coats were red 

 or black ; indeed, adaptation has gone so far in these animals 

 that the coat is lighter in winter than in summer, and thus 

 blends still better as the foliage gives place to snow. 



The most highly colored birds are those that live among the 

 foliage and flowers of the tropics. Snakes and lizards closely 

 imitate the dull colors of the grounds they infest, and while 

 the resemblance is not close, it is more effective than would at 

 first seem possible. Many insects are as green as the leaves 

 they sit upon, often for no other reason than that the green 

 chlorophyll from the leaves they have eaten shows through 

 the thin texture of their bodies. Others, like these shown in 

 Fig. 10, are variously colored in close resemblance to their most 

 frequent habitat. 



Mimicry. Closely akin to protective coloring is mimicry ; 

 indeed, mimicry is the idea of protection carried a step further, 

 in which the resemblance is not so much to the background as 

 to some other specific object. 



On the border line of the two is the peculiar marking of the 

 zebra, the tiger, and the leopard, which at first thought would 

 seem to make them conspicuous. However, the facts are that 

 such a striped or spotted animal lies well hidden in the thicket 

 or the jungle, fpr the peculiar markings and outlines of his body 

 are not quickly distinguishable from the lights and shadows 

 which the sunshine casts about him. 



True mimicry, however, is more exact, and some cases are 

 quite remarkable. Of all created things butterflies are able to 

 show the best cases of mimicry from their remarkable colora- 

 tion and from the general resemblance of the structure of their 

 wings to that of leaves. For an example of color mimicry refer 



1 This is the reason why the United States has abandoned the blue uni- 

 form and. the British the red for the dirty-looking but really serviceable and 

 inconspicuous khaki. 



