OR, A TREATISE ON PILE. 85 



hairs. Among the lower animals, variety in the color of pile, sometimes in different fila- 

 ments upon the same animal, and at others exhibiting a variety of colors in the same 

 filament, is not uncommon. ' The royal tiger of the east lias pile of a fawn-colored ground, 

 striped cross-wise, with black ; the jaguar has also a fawn-colored ground, but he has four 

 ranges of black spots, in the form of eyes ; the panther has six or seven black spots; the 

 leopard has ten rows; the guepard has small black spots; the zebra has transverse bands 

 of blackish-brown color upon a fawn-colored ground; the couagge has the same bands, 

 but they are confined to the shoulders and back. The silver fox has black hair, slightly 

 tipped with white; the spines of the porcupine are black, brown and white; so are those 

 of the pecary ; the white hair of the possum and raccoon is tipped with black ; the brown 

 hair of a squirrel's tail is tipped with white, &c., &c. But the most extraordinary pro- 

 duction of this kind is the golden mole, (chrysocholores,) which is said to have hair of 

 a green color, changeable into a bronze or copper tinge. (See Elem. de Zool., p. 298.) 

 We have had no opportunity of examining this pile, but conjecture that these changeable 

 hues are occasioned by the various reflections of light from the scales of the cortex. 



There appears to be much greater variety in the colors of domesticated animals than in 

 wild ones,* and some are of opinion that, in regard to the wild ones, those which are inca- 

 pable of being tamed, retain always the same color and markings. 



Female domestic cats often have hair of three colors, but the males are limited to two. 

 When an animal has two distinctly colored hairs, it is found, as a general rule, that the 

 darkest is above and the lightest below ; but the badger (meles) is an exception, for he 

 has grey above and black below. 



OF CHANGES IN THE COLOR OF PlLE, AT TIMES OTHER THAN PUBERTY. 



" Can the leopard change his spots ?" Jer. 13: 23. 



M. Destress reports the following singular case: "A young lady (only 13 years of age) 

 who had never suffered except from temporary pains in the head, in the winter of 1817-18, 

 discovered that many places on her head were becoming bald, and in six months she had 

 not a single hair. In the month of January, 1819, there appeared upon the part of the 

 scalp, which first became bald, a sort of black wool, the rest had brown hair. A part of 

 this new integument fell out when it became two or three inches long; the rest changed 

 [lost its] color, at a distance greater or less from the point, becoming chestnut in the 

 remaining part." The account continues with the remark that, "it was strange to see a 

 hair half white and half chestnut!" (Diet, des Sci. Med., v. 43, p. 502.) 



The above report is too imperfect to afford much light to science. "A sort of black 

 wool." We should have been informed what sort. It might have been downy hairs. 

 From the age, and a part of the new hair falling out, and the rest losing its color, we 

 would attribute the phenomenon to the changes of puberty. 



* Livingston says that the wild ones wear an unvaried uniform, with now and then such an exception as to afford a hint 

 to man of the means of grafting a permanent change upon accidental variations. (Essay upon Sheep.) 



Van Amringo says that the California and South American wild ox and wild horse hides, have less variety of color than 

 our domestic ones. 



