Cryptic Colouring 



we trust will be considered a fair statement of 

 the various theories of animal colouration which 

 are generally accepted to-day, then to show 

 up the various weak points in these, and lastly, 

 to endeavour to ascertain whether there are not 

 some alternative explanations in certain cases to 

 which the generally - accepted theory does not 

 apply. 



Neo- Darwinians divide the various forms of 

 colouration into three great classes : ( i ) Cryptic 

 colouring, or protective and aggressive resem- 

 blances ; (2) sematic colours, or warning and 

 recognition colours ; and (3) pseudo-sematic 

 colours, or mimicry. A tabular statement of 

 this scheme of colouring will be found on pp. 

 293-7 of Professor Poulton's Essays on 

 Evolution. 



As regards class (i), Neo-Darwinians point 

 out that the great majority of animals are so 

 coloured as to make them very difficult to see in 

 their natural environment, hence the whiteness 

 of the creatures which inhabit the snow-bound 

 Arctic regions, the sandy colour of desert animals, 

 the spotted coats of creatures which live among 

 trees, the striped markings of animals which 

 spend their lives amid long grass, and the trans- 

 parent blueness of pelagic animals. The theory 

 is that all kinds of animals, whether those that 

 hunt or those that are hunted, derive much ad- 

 vantage from being coloured like their environ- 



