XXXIII 

 PROTECTIVE COLOURING IN ANIMALS 



EVERY one is familiar with some of the instances 

 in which the natural colour of an animal helps to 

 hide it from view. Green caterpillars, for instance, are 

 less visible when among the green leaves which they eat 

 than they would be were they brown, blue, red, yellow, 

 or black. The little green tree-frog is difficult to see 

 when he is clinging to a leaf, because his colour is the 

 same as that of the leaf. Sandy-brown-coloured animals, 

 birds, reptiles, and beasts of prey, are found on the sands 

 of the desert ; white birds, foxes, hares, and bears on the 

 Arctic snow. The similarity of the colouring of these 

 animals to that of the ground on which they live results 

 in their escaping the observation of man's eye, and we 

 are entitled to believe that they escape for the same 

 reason the observation of other animals. They are thus 

 in many cases protected from the attacks of enemies 

 searching for them as prey, or in other cases they may 

 themselves be enabled the more easily in consequence of 

 their concealing colour to creep upon other animals and 

 seize them as food. Some of the simpler cases of this 

 resemblance between an animal and its surroundings are 

 easy to observe, and the value of the resemblance as 

 protection, or as a means of secret attack, is plain 

 enough. 



