THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 355 



it also to as many minor and incidental functions as possible. 

 She loves variety: and therefore brings into being a dozen 

 conifers instead of one "standardized" pine; hundred 

 species where half a dozen would do; a thousand wild- 

 flowers instead of a score that would adequately enough fit 

 the changes of condition. 



This being so, we can conceive that one of the important 

 reasons why birds, beasts, insects, and flowers are striped, 

 variegated, spotted, mottled, and otherwise decorated is 

 that thus they respond to Nature's demand for variety. 

 If coloration were intended solely, or even primarily, for 

 purposes of concealment, it would be only sensible on 

 Nature's part to fit her creatures with the very few com- 

 binations that are best adapted to the purpose in different 

 circumstances. To a large extent I, personally, am willing 

 to agree with Emerson that beauty may be its own excuse 

 for being. To those who insist on a purely utilitarian 

 reason for everything, I would call attention to the zebra. 

 For the sake of argument only, let us assume that his stripes 

 are for the purpose of concealing him — or attracting atten- 

 tion of his own kind, it does not matter which. If that 

 were the only reason, a regular and uniform pattern of 

 stripes would fulfill every requisite. Then why, as is the 

 case, does every zebra differ from every other zebra in the 

 pattern of his hide? More: why, even, is the pattern on 

 the right side of any individual zebra different from the 

 pattern on his left side? The permutations and combina- 

 tions are as limitless as thumb points. When the strict 

 utilitarians have given good reasons for this one astonishing 

 fact, then we are ready to go on. In the meantime it seems 



