THE COLORATION OF LARGE ANIMALS n 



potamuses, it is fairly safe to assert that among the 

 medium-sized and larger mammals the primitive type of 

 coloration took the form of either striping or spotting. 

 This is demonstrated by the many known instances there 

 are of the young being striped or spotted, while the adults 

 are more or less uniformly coloured. As well-known 

 examples of this kind we may cite tapirs, wild swine, many 

 kinds of deer, lions, and pumas. In many cases the sub- 

 stitution of a uniform dull livery for a spotted or striped 

 coat has evidently been in adaptation to an existence in 

 open or desert country. Instances of this kind are afforded 

 by the lion and the Cape eland, the latter of which has lost 

 the stripes characteristic of its more northern representa- y* 

 tive and of the kindred antelopes such as the kudus and 

 bushbucks. 



The fact that the young of certain animals haunting 

 more or less arid districts, such as the lion, still retain 

 their spots, while others, like the eland, differ from their 

 relatives inhabiting more wooded country only by the loss 

 of their stripes, indicates that in these cases, at any rate, 

 the acquisition of a uniformly coloured tawny coat is a 

 comparatively recent event. Possibly an explanation of 

 this may be afforded by the history of deserts and semi- 

 deserts themselves. In contradistinction to the old idea 

 that they are ancient upraised sea-beds, it is now well 

 known that all desert areas have been formed very slowly 

 by the gradual decomposition of the rocks in countries 

 where there is no rain to wash away the debris. And it 

 seems by no means improbable — owing to the enormous 

 lapse of time necessary for their formation, coupled, perhaps, 

 with a greater rainfall over most parts of the world in 

 earlier epochs — that such tracts never existed until late 

 in the earth's history. 



