PART I 



SPOTTED AND STRIPED MAMMALS 



(HORSES EXCEPTED) 



A GLANCE at the living Mammals in the gardens of the Zoological 

 Society, and at the mounted specimens in the Natural History 

 Museum, will show us what a large number of Mammals of 

 several orders and of many genera are either spotted or striped, 

 or both spotted and striped. There is a large number of Mammals 

 which may be said to have permanently lost their spots or stripes ; 

 but there are not very many which, either in the childhood of 

 the individual or in some of its species, either on the legs, on 

 the tail, or on other parts, do not betray their descent by vestiges 

 of either spots or stripes. 



In the Appendices I have given lists of various Mammals 

 which show spotting or striping now, or show vestiges of descent 

 from spotted and striped ancestors. Some of them have a plain 

 body and spotted or striped legs ; while others have only a 

 ringed tail to show what they came from. These tail rings, 

 even when they are the sole markings, are in my opinion dis- 

 tinct vestiges of either a spotted or striped ancestry. 



If one had a fuller acquaintance with the childhood and 

 adulthood of all Mammals, under different conditions of climate 

 and other surroundings, the probability is that these lists might 

 be much lengthened, and we might perhaps then come to the 



