330 DAKWINIANISM. 



growth of an extraordinary advantage somehow accident- 

 ally begun, as also how other such animals secure escape 

 for themselves by " varying their tints according to the 

 nature of the ground over which they pass," or as just 

 how the spider first took to the life of a Ketiarius ! 

 But, perhaps, the Zorillo or skunk beats all other 

 animals in the way of such strange expedients for 

 commodity. 



It is thus Mr. Darwin characterises it 



" Conscious of its power, it roams by day about the open plain, 

 and fears neither dog nor man. If a dog is urged to the attack, its 

 courage is instantly checked by a few drops of the fetid oil, which 

 brings on violent sickness and running at the nose. Whatever is 

 once polluted by it is for ever useless. Azara says the smell can be 

 perceived at a league distant ; more than once, when entering the 

 harbour of Monte Video, the wind being off shore, we have per- 

 ceived the odour on board the Beagle. Certain it is, that every 

 animal willingly makes room for the Zorillo." (Why, then, are 

 there not more of it 1) 



Here, to a like moral, is his description of a toad 



" One little toad (Phryniscus nigricans) was most singular from 

 its colour. If we imagine, first, that it had been steeped in the 

 blackest ink, and then, when dry, allowed to crawl over a board, 

 freshly painted with the brightest vermilion, so as to colour the 

 soles of its feet and parts of its stomach, a good idea of its ap- 

 pearance will be gained. Surely it ought to have been called 

 Diabolicus, for it is a fit toad to preach in the ear of Eve. Instead 

 of being nocturnal in its habits, as other toads are, and living in 

 damp obscure recesses, it crawls during the heat of the day about 

 the dry sand-hillocks and arid plains, where not a single drop of 

 water can be found." 



How the black colour came, and how the vermilion, 

 but especially perhaps how, though a toad, it can live 

 " where not a single drop of water can be found," will 

 surely puzzle any one who trusts wholly to the now 

 familiar machinery of the pictured application of ordinary 



