THE COLORATION OF LARGE ANIMALS 17 



that ears of ordinary size suffice for the creature's 

 hearing. 



The mention of the okapi recalls the fact that the colora- 

 tion of the upper part of the legs and hindquarters takes 

 the form of narrow black and white stripes, running, how- 

 ever, more horizontally than vertically, but evidently 

 conforming to the characteristic forest type. To attempt 

 to discuss why the coloration of the rest of this remarkable 

 animal is uniform would be premature in the absence of 

 any definite information with regard to its mode of life. 



From the foregoing observations it seems evident that 

 in Africa, and in that country alone (for there are no 

 vertically striped ungulates in Asia), there are two distinct 

 types of protective coloration, the one generally associated 

 with large ears, for animals frequenting forest or brush- 

 wood, and the other for those living in more open country. 

 The forest type takes the form of white stripes, either upon 

 a fawn or chestnut or upon a black ground (the dark 

 intervals being broad in the former case and narrow in 

 the latter), or of a white network upon a liver-coloured 

 ground. On the other hand, in the plain type we have 

 either an alternation of broad dark and light vertical 

 stripes or dark blotches upon a buff ground. Both forms 

 of the latter type have been definitely stated to render the 

 animals in which they occur more or less inconspicuous 

 at comparatively short distances. But, so far as I am 

 aware, there are absolutely no observations to indicate the 

 degree of invisibility in the wild state of the two modi- 

 fications of the forest type. Probably, however, the 

 alternations of dark and light vertical stripes harmonise 

 with the vertical lines formed by stems of underwood and 

 the spaces between them. 



We also want to know whether either or both of these 



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