CHAPTER III. 



COLORATION OF GAME ANIMALS. 



IN dealing with different types of country and their effects on the animals living 

 in them the subject of coloration was not touched upon. 



It is undoubtedly the case that differences of climate, country, and 

 vegetation are determining factors in the colours, or at any rate part of the colours, 

 of many game animals, but why this should be so or how it comes about is less clear. 

 Wallace, that able follower and expounder of Darwin, has written much on the 

 subject of coloration. He claims that practically the whole scheme of coloration 

 of the animal world can be explained by his theories of protective coloration, 

 recognition marks, danger signals, and sexual selection. Interesting and instructive 

 as his works are, there is still much, especially as regards the larger game, that 

 does not bear absolute conviction to the mind of the outdoor naturalist. 



Darwin himself never considered the smallest of his points as proved until such 

 time as he had produced an enormous and overwhelming bulk of practical evidence 

 in its favour. I am sure that he would have been the first to allow that some of his 

 disciples' theories and suggestions were as yet insufficiently proved by facts. Much 

 as the ideas might have appealed to his imagination, a naturalist so practical as he 

 was would never have committed himself to such statements before he had advanced 

 the fullest and most ample proofs and field observations in their favour. For Darwin 

 was not merely one of those whom President Roosevelt refers to as " closet 

 naturalists " — he was rather at one and the same time a learned indoor, and an 

 observant outdoor, naturalist. 



I had read most of the accepted theories on animal coloration as a boy before 

 I had come in actual contact with the larger game. In the light of my then very 

 limited practical information these theories seemed to be convincing enough. The 

 idea of accounting for all the markings of every animal by such simple principles 

 seemed so perfectly in accord with Nature's scheme that one was compelled to 

 accept them ; but in recent years I have set myself to investigate these theories 

 by the light of practical experience of the real habits and conditions under which 

 the animals live, more particularly as regards the greater game. I am now compelled 

 to admit that I am unable to find any very convincing practical proofs in favour 

 of those theories, so fascinating when read in civilised surroundings. 



