MAMMALS. 621 



dusK it would not easily be recognized and might be attacked 

 by a beast of prey. Hence it is, as Mr. Belt believes,* that the 

 skunk is provided with a great white bushy tail, which 

 serves as a conspicuous warning. 



Although we must admit that many quadrupeds have 

 received their present tints either as a protection, or as an 

 aid in procuring prey, yet with a host of species, the colors 

 are far too conspicuous and too singularly arranged to 

 allow us to suppose that they serve for these purposes. We 

 may take as an illustration certain antelopes; when we see 

 the square white patch on the throat, the white marks on 

 the fetlocks, and the round black spots on the ears, all more 

 distinct in the male of the Port ax picta, than in the 

 female when we see that the colors are more vivid, that 

 the narrow white lines on the flank and the broad white 

 bar on the shoulder are more distinct in the male Oreas 

 derbyanus than in the female when we see a similar 

 difference between the sexes of the curiously ornamented 

 Tragelaphus script-un (fig. 70) we cannot believe that 

 differences of this kind are of any service to either sex in 

 their daily habits of life. It seems a much more probable 

 conclusion that the various marks were first acquired by 

 the males and their colors intensified through sexual selec- 

 tion, and then partially transferred to the females. If this 

 view be admitted, there can be little doubt that the equally 

 singular colors and marks of many other antelopes, though 

 common to both sexes, have been gained and transmitted 

 in a like manner. Both sexes, for instance, of the koodoo 

 (Strepsiceros kudu] (fig. 64) have narrow white vertical 

 lines on their hind flanks, and an elegant angular white 

 mark on their foreheads. Both sexes in the genus Dam- 

 alis are very oddly colored; in D. pygarga the back and 

 neck are purplish-red, shading on the flanks into black ; 

 and these colors are abruptly separated from the white 

 belly and from a large white space on the buttocks; the head 

 is still more oddly colored, a large oblong white mask, nar- 

 rowly edged with black, covers the face up to the eyes 

 (fig. 71); there are three white stripes on the forehead and 

 the ears are marked with white. The fawns of this species 

 are of a uniform pale yellowish brown. In Damalis albi- 

 frons the coloring of the head differs from that in the last 



* " The Naturalist in Nicaragua," p. 249. 



