COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



positions the vertical stripes with which his body 

 is adorned must so assimilate with the vertical 

 stems of the bamboo as to assist greatly in con- 

 cealing him from his approaching prey. How 

 remarkable it is that besides the lion and tiger, 

 almost all the other large cats are arboreal in 

 their habits, and almost all have ocellated or 

 spotted skins, which must certainly tend to 

 blend them with the background of foliage — 

 while the one exception, the puma, has an ashy 

 brown uniform fur, and has the habit of cling- 

 ing so closely to a limb of a tree, while waiting 

 for his prey to pass beneath, as to be hardly dis- 

 tinguishable from the bark." ^ Such nocturnal 

 animals as owls, goat-suckers, mice, bats, and 

 moles are dusky coloured. In tropical forests, 

 where the trees are laden with green foliage all 

 the year round, we find brilliant green pigeons 

 and parrots ; while the northern snipe resem- 

 bles the marshy vegetation in which it lives, and 

 the woodcock, with its variegated browns and 

 yellows, is inconspicuous among the autumn 

 leaves.^ Arboreal iguanas are tinted leafy green ; 

 and out of many species of tropical tree-snakes 



^ Wallace, Natural Selection^ pp. 49, 53. 

 ^ The general principle is well stated by Emerson, in this 

 pretty quatrain : — 



*' He took the colour of his vest 

 From rabbit's coat and grouse's breast j 

 For as the wild kinds lurk and hide, 

 So walks the huntsman unespied." 



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