Unimportance of Colour 



part due to the fact that many zoologists are 

 content to study nature in museums rather 

 than in the open. Some of those who observe 

 organisms in their natural surroundings, especially 

 in such favourable localities as the tropics, 

 seem to be of opinion that natural selection 

 has but little influence on the colouration of 

 organisms. 



Thus D. Dewar writes (Albany Review, 1907) : 

 " Eight years of bird-watching in India have 

 convinced me that, so far as the struggle for 

 existence is concerned, it matters not to a bird 

 whether it be conspicuously or inconspicuously 

 coloured, that it is not the necessity for pro- 

 tection against raptorial foes which determines 

 the colouring of a species ; in short, that the 

 theory of protective colouration has but little 

 application to the fowls of the air." 



Similarly, F. C. Selous writes, on page 13 

 of African Nature Notes and Reminiscences : 

 " Having spent many years of my life in the 

 constant pursuit of African game, I have cer- 

 tainly been afforded opportunities such as have 

 been enjoyed by but few civilised men of 

 becoming intimately acquainted with the habits 

 and life-history of many species of animals living 

 in that continent, and all that I have learned 

 during my long experience as a hunter compels 

 me to doubt the correctness of the now very 

 generally accepted theories that all the wonder- 



