The Making of Species 



usual and have bushy tails, which they carry 

 erect. Although less powerful and ferocious 

 than other members of the weasel family, to 

 which they belong, skunks are notoriously pro- 

 tected by their abundant secretion of a very fetid 

 liquid. 



For further examples of warning colouration 

 we would refer the reader to Beddard's illumin- 

 ating book, entitled Animal Colouration. 



It should be noticed that in all the cases which 

 we have cited the colouration is not only con- 

 spicuous, but is found in both sexes, whereas in 

 many undefended animals the male may be just 

 as strikingly coloured, but the female is not. 



We may take it as proved that there is a very 

 general relation between gaudy colouring and 

 inedibility, or rather unpalatability, among insects. 

 It may safely be said that any species of insect 

 which lives, either as an adult or as a larva, in the 

 open will perish in the struggle for existence if, 

 being conspicuously coloured, it is neither in- 

 edible nor armed with a weapon such as sting, nor 

 provided with a thick cuticle, nor resembles in 

 appearance some creature which is protected. 



But from this it is not legitimate to conclude, 

 as Neo-Darwinians do, that these brilliant colours 

 have been slowly brought into being by natural 

 selection. 



Why should any creature, having by the 

 "luck" of variation and heredity acquired some 



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