Correlation 



colour and badness of temper. It is probably 

 in part owing to a recognition of this that the 

 cobras ordinarily seen in the hands of the so- 

 called snake charmers are of a very light colour, 

 although the choice may also be to some extent of 

 aesthetic origin, seeing that the paler varieties are 

 specially ornamental, due to the brilliancy of their 

 markings and the great development of their 

 hoods." It would thus appear that there is also 

 a correlation between the colour of the cobra and 

 the size of its hood. 



Hesketh Pritchard informs us, in Through the 

 Heart of Patagonia, that the Gauchos assert that 

 a " picaso " colt that is to say, a black one with 

 white points is the reverse of docile. Similarly, 

 black mice are said to be very hard to tame. 



We have already called attention to the im- 

 portance of courage and the power of resisting 

 the rigours of climate in the struggle for exist- 

 ence. It is apparently because black is so fre- 

 quently correlated with courage that it is seen 

 comparatively often in nature, in spite of the fact 

 that it is a very bad colour as regards protection 

 from enemies. Those birds and beasts which are 

 black are usually thriving species. The domi- 

 nance of the crow tribe is a case in point. Crows, 

 it is true, are not really courageous, but they are 

 dangerous owing to their gregarious habits, and 

 are dreaded by other creatures on account of 

 their power of combination. In Birds of the 



359 



