PROTECTIVE COLORATION 



4845 



PROTECTORATE 



ties of its citizens. The free trader' maintains 

 that protection does not help nationalism and 

 points to Great Britain as proof. He denies 

 that protection causes diversity of industries 

 in a country like the United States, where 

 innumerable natural resources offer opportuni- 

 ties. Moreover, he points out that labor comes 

 in competition, not with commodities, but 

 with other labor, and American labor secures 

 more wages, not because of tariff, but be- ' 

 cause it is more efficient. Again, it is main- 

 tained that the price of supplies is so high 

 under protective rates that the American pro- 

 cures no more for his high wages than the 

 Englishman. Protection, say its opponents, en- 

 deavors to compel a nation to produce what it 

 is not well adapted to produce and thus less- 

 ens the sum total of the world's fruitfulness. 

 Above all else, according to later opponents, 

 protection fosters monopolies by shutting out 

 international competition and fattens certain 

 great combinations of manufacturies by com- 

 pelling American citizens to pay more for goods 

 than these same combinations, selling abroad, 

 ire foreigners. As examples, it has been 

 _'od that American harvesting machines 

 and steel rails are sold abroad cheaper than 

 can be purchased in the country of their 

 manufacture. The question has been the sub- 

 ject of political battle for more than a century 

 of America's existence, and the end of the strife 

 is not yet in sight. See FREE TRADE. W.F.Z. 



Consult Tausslgfs Tariff History of the United 

 States; Stan wood's American Tariff Controver- 

 sies. 



PROTECTIVE COLORATION, protek'tiv 

 kul era' shun, widely but less correctly known 

 as MIMICRY, is one of the greatest factors in 

 life of animals and plants for protection 

 in the struggle for existence. Colors in nature 

 are not always merely marks of distinction of 

 species or attractions to insure reproduction, 

 are also protection against natural enemies. 

 : are darkly-colored on top and light under- 

 neath, as a protection against enemies above 

 i>eneath them; some are colored like tin- 

 weeds among which ' Frogs and 

 pnakcs which live in green foliage are colored 

 a similar green. Birds, reptiles and animals of 

 desert arc mottled-gray or are sand col- 

 ored. Some hares, rabbits, weasels and other 

 animals v in cold climates change their 

 earth-colored coats to coverings of white when 

 snow and ice are on the ground. Ev 

 will hr Mn protective coloration in harmony 

 "itli surroundings and habits, from green cater* 



pillars scarcely distinguishable from blades of 

 grass, to brownish lizards on fence rails, white 

 polar bears in Arctic snows, and slaty-blue sea 

 gulls, the color of the sea. 



Most wonderful and striking protective re- 

 semblances are seen, however, in structure as 

 well as color, especially among the more deli- 

 cately-constructed creatures of the world, the 

 moths, butterflies and insects. The kallima, or 

 dead-leaf butterfly, of India, settling on a twig 

 and folding its wings, looks exactly like a dead, 

 dried leaf. Many butterflies, fluttering about, 

 look like falling leaves. The common walk- 

 ing-stick insect looks so much like a twig it is 

 almost impossible to discover it even when 

 looking directly at it. Some insects resem- 

 bling other objects in nature lure to themselves 

 the prey they require as food. For instance, 

 an Indian insect called the praying horse looks 

 like an orchid, and smaller insects, attracted 

 to it, are caught. Some fly-catching birds of 

 Brazil have flowerlike crests which attract 

 their prey. This form of color resemblance 

 also appears among carnivorous, or insect-eat- 

 ing, plants. The pitcher plant looks so much 

 like a decaying piece of liver that insects are 

 easily enticed into its deadly folds (see PITCHER 

 PLANTS). Another plant illustration is that of 

 desert cactus, which is afforded protection 

 through its resemblance to poisonous euphor- 

 bias. 



Another strange form of protective colora- 

 tion the form which suggested the term mim- 

 icry, although it does not appear through any 

 act of the insect is illustrated by the Viceroy 

 butterfly. It is an edible butterfly not dis- 

 tasteful to birds, but, though not closely related 

 to the Monarch butterfly, which birds will not 

 eat, resembles the Monarch so closely that it 

 is protected from its bird enemies. Numerous 

 defenseless moths and flies are colored so much 

 like stinging bees and wasps that they are 

 avoided by their natural enemies. 



Although many theories have been advanced 

 to explain these facts, the generally accepted 

 belief is that they arc not the results of vol- 

 untary acts by the animals. They are the re- 

 suits of natural selection. Year after year, 

 through the centuries, those individuals which 

 were not well protected were destroyed, and 

 creatures with the most effective coloration 

 lived and were reproduced. M.S. 



Consult Beddartfn Animal Coloration: Pout- 

 ton's Colors of Animals. 



PROTECTORATE, pro tek'loh rate, a term 

 in international law, used to denote the po- 



