164 THE STORY OF REPTILE LIFE. 



by a hungry animal, its superior in size, it will 

 succumb, and its death will fail to benefit its 

 surviving relatives inasmuch as the poison 

 renders the body neither unpalatable nor danger- 

 ous to the animal which eats it. Consequently 

 then, its poison is unrealized by the swallower, and 

 therefore could never have served as a deterrent 

 for future remembrance. As soon, however, as 

 the device of unpalatable animals was adopted, 

 immunity from experiment resulted, and with 

 it, the consequent gain to the species. This 

 being so, the warning-colours of reptiles, them- 

 selves now mimicked, originated in mimicry, 

 they being palatable, by their colours are mis- 

 taken for unpalatable. 



Although the coloration of reptiles can, for 

 the most part be accounted for, with more or 

 less probability, there are some instances which 

 are not so easily to be explained. Thus, it is 

 a fact that the young of many reptiles are often 

 much more brilliantly coloured than their parents. 

 Why this should be is not clear, unless this more 

 brilliant livery was too conspicuous, and so was 

 exchanged for one of a more sombre type, and 

 now only reappears in the course of development 

 like other rejected characters. 



Again, some snakes, though practically blind, 

 are most beautifully coloured, as in some of the 

 burrowing-snakes belonging to the family Uro- 

 peltidae. What is the use of colour here ? 



Plow the coloration of reptiles has been 

 affected by courtship, we shall discuss in another 

 chapter. 



