124 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



hard to see, and evidently find it just as easy to catch 

 prey, as the jaguar and ocelot. The little fawn which we 

 saw was spotted; the grown deer had lost the spots; if the 

 spots do really help to conceal the wearer, it is evident 

 that the deer has found the original concealing coloration 

 of so little value that it has actually been lost in the course 

 of the development of the species. When these big cats 

 and the deer are considered, together with the dogs, tapirs, 

 peccaries, capybaras, and big ant-eaters which live in the 

 same environment, and when we also consider the differ- 

 ence between the young and the adult deer and tapirs 

 (both of which when adult have substituted a complete or 

 partial monochrome for the ancestral spots and streaks), 

 it is evident that in the present life and in the ancestral 

 development of the big mammals of South America colora- 

 tion is not and has not been a survival factor; any pattern 

 and any color may accompany the persistence and devel- 

 opment of the qualities and attributes which are survival 

 factors. Indeed, it seems hard to believe that in their 

 ordinary environments such color schemes as the bright 

 red of the marsh-deer, the black of the black jaguar, and 

 the black with white stripes of the great tamandua, are 

 not positive detriments to the wearers. Yet such is evi- 

 dently not the case. Evidently the other factors in species- 

 survival are of such overwhelming importance that the 

 coloration becomes negligible from this standpoint, whether 

 it be concealing or revealing. The cats mould themselves 

 to the ground as they crouch or crawl. They take advan- 

 tage of the tiniest scrap of cover. They move with extraor- 

 dinary stealth and patience. The other animals which try 

 to sneak off in such manner as to escape observation 



