The Making of Species 



Many exceedingly conspicuous birds as, for 

 example all the crow-tribe, the egrets, the 

 kingfishers flourish in spite of their showy 

 plumage. Such creatures, while scarcely consti- 

 tuting a valid objection to the theory of pro- 

 tective colouration, serve to show that protective 

 colouring is not a necessity. An animal other- 

 wise able to take care of itself can afford to 

 dispense with cryptic colouration. " An ounce 

 of good solid pugnacity is a more effective 

 weapon in the struggle for existence than many 

 pounds of protective colouration." 



There used to live in the gardens of the Zoo- 

 logical Society of London a black cat belonging 

 to the manager of one of the restaurants. This 

 animal used to catch birds on the lawn. We 

 believe that not even Mr Thayer will maintain 

 that a black cat is cryptically coloured when 

 stalking on a well-watered lawn ! Nevertheless 

 the nigritude of that cat did not prevent it 

 securing a meal. 



The case of birds' eggs furnish an excellent 

 example of the lengths to which Wallace and his 

 followers have pushed the theory of protective 

 colouration. 



D. Dewar maintains that it is possible to 

 divide birds' eggs that are coloured, as opposed 

 to those that are white, into two classes those 

 which are protectively coloured and those which 

 are not The former class includes all those 



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