ADAPTATION FOR THE INDIVIDUAL lOQ 



escaping attention, far more common and widespread 

 throughout the animal world. The eye does not eas- 

 ily see an object if it is colored like the background 

 against which it stands. A host of animals find their 

 main safety in being indistinguishable in color from 

 the surface on which they live. There are many biolo- 

 gists who seriously question whether protective colora- 

 tion, as Darwin called it, is as effective as he believed 

 it. In some quarters it is the present fashion to doubt 

 protective coloration entirely. No one has yet shown 

 any principles which will better explain the great color 

 scheme of the animal world, and until such explana- 

 tion is forthcoming I believe it will not be wise for us 

 to discard the idea of protective coloration. No doubt 

 it has been overworked by enthusiastic believers in its 

 efficiency. At the same time, to overlook it com- 

 pletely, is, I believe, to make a greater error. I have 

 little doubt that when the broader explanation comes, 

 which will satisfactorily explain the color scheme of 

 the animal world, the idea of protective coloration 

 will be found, not so much to have been wrong, as to 

 have been but partial. It will be included under the 

 broader principle which takes its place and will not be 

 supplanted by it. 



The idea of protective coloration is that very many 

 animals have ordinarily come to be colored like the 

 background on which they live. The process has 



