94 CHILDHOOD OF ANIMALS 



hinder part of the body above and below is white and there is the 

 same rim of white round the ears. There is no difference in the colora- 

 tion of the sexes. The dull coloration of the American animal, 

 with its counter-shading, may well suit the muddy edges of the 

 rivers and lakes and marshes it inhabits, whilst the black and white 

 of the Malay species is a good example of ruptive pattern, and when 

 the animal is lying amongst the boulders at the edge of a river in the 

 tropical sunlight, is said to be extremely difficult to see. But the 

 young tapirs, both in America and Asia, follow their parents closely, 

 and share their surroundings, and yet are amongst the most vividly 

 patterned of living animals. Their dark bodies are profusely 

 striped and spotted with white, the stripes and the rows of spots 

 being arranged longitudinally like those of young pigs, and being 

 extremely alike in all the species. I think that it cannot be doubted 

 but that this infantile pattern (which is lost in a few months) is a 

 natural growth pattern. Its similarity in American and Malay 

 forms, which are so unlike as adults, points to such an explanation 

 being correct. 



In the several species of rhinoceros the coloration is nearly 

 uniform, and the young differ very little from the adults, except that 

 they are more hairy and paler. The thick hide reveals its com- 

 posite or tessellated structure, not by differences of colour, but by 

 differences of texture, being broken up in the Indian animals into 

 great masses, like armour-plates, separated by more flexible grooves. 

 The continuous barrel-shaped area from behind the shoulders to 

 the hind- legs, together with the plate covering the rump, correspond 

 rather closely with the region that is white in the Malay tapir. In 

 the young African rhinoceros there are hoop-like ridges over the 

 back and flanks, at first sight suggesting that the ribs are showing 

 through the skin, and which, if they happened to be expressed in 

 differences in colour, would transform the animal into a vividly 

 patterned creature. In the African and the Indian species alike 

 the hide is marked with a series of bosses and hexagonal areas which 

 again only lack differences of colour to become a conspicuous 

 pattern. 



Except that foals are rather more lightly coloured than adults 

 and frequently have a continuous mane of short erect hair 

 running along the middle line of the back, young horses, asses and 

 zebras differ very little from their parents in coloration and pattern. 

 Spots, dapplings and stripes are extremely common ; if they are 

 present in the adults, they are always present in the foals, and not 



