NIGHTJARS AND TIGERS 43 



right at one of them. But beyond causing it just 

 to open or shut the eye, as the case might be, they 

 produced no effect upon the sleepy creature. The 

 nightjar is a remarkably close sitter, and both this 

 special habit and its general drowsiness upon the 

 nest may have been fostered, at the same time, by 

 natural selection. The more usual view of the 

 nightjar's colouring is, I suppose, that it is dusky, 

 in harmony with night. But from what does a 

 bird of its great powers of flight require protection, 

 either as against the attacks of enemies or the escape 

 of prey; and again, what colour, short of white, would 

 be a disadvantage to it, in the case of either, when 

 nox atra colorem abstulit rebus ? 



Questions of a similar nature may be asked in 

 regard to the tiger, lion, and other large feline 

 animals, which, fearing no enemy, and hunting their 

 prey by scent, after dark, are yet supposed to be pro- 

 tected by their coloration. These things are easily 

 settled in the study, where the habits of the species 

 pronounced upon, not being known, are not taken 

 into account ; but I may mention that my brother, 

 with his many years' experience of wild beasts and 

 their ways, and, moreover, a thorough evolutionist, 

 is a great doubter here. How, he asks, as I do 

 now, with him, can the lion be protected, in this 

 way, against the antelope, and the antelope against 

 the lion, when the one hunts, and the other is caught, 

 by scent, after darkness has set in ? Of what use, 

 for such a purpose, can colour or colour-markings 

 be to either of them ? On the other hand, these 

 go, in varying degrees, to make up a creature's 

 beauty. Take, for instance, the leopard, jaguar, or 



