62 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



of this kind is exceedingly rare among the mammalia. The 

 curious little zebra-antelope of West Africa (Cephalopus dorice) 

 is broadly striped with black, and so also is one of the civet tribe 

 known as Hardwicke's civet, and the fierce thylacine, a dog-like 

 animal of Australia. 



The zebra and the tiger are both " protectively " coloured, 

 though in the one case this livery has been assumed for the 

 purposes of passive defence, and in the other for aggressive 

 purposes. The hare and the stoat, creatures which are to be 

 met with throughout Great Britain, afford equally striking 

 examples of these two types of coloration. There are two 

 species of hare in Great Britain, one known as the common hare 

 (Lepus europceus), the other as the mountain hare (L. timidus). 

 In summer both are brown and resemble, very closely, the clods 

 of earth or dead vegetation amid which they generally crouch. 

 Thereby they escape the prying eyes of the numerous enemies 

 by which they are surrounded eagles, hawks, foxes and stoats, 

 for example ; or at least a very large number escape detection. 

 These creatures need concealment to enable them to rest, 

 otherwise they would be subjected to a constant harrying ; so 

 soon as they move they become at once conspicuous, but a 

 moving animal has at least a sporting chance of escape, and in 

 any case no amount of protective coloration of resemblance 

 to their surroundings would be of any service to an animal 

 in motion. Consequently these protective liveries have come 

 about by the slaughter of all those individuals who were 

 strikingly different in hue from their surroundings, and the 

 escape of those in proportion as they resembled those sur- 

 roundings. 



Similarly, the fox and stoat are protectively coloured, but for 

 aggressive purposes, that is to say, so that they may creep up 

 unawares on such victims as they by chance discover. But in 

 countries where the winter is long and severe, and consequently 

 when for many months much snow falls and remains long on the 

 ground, brown hares on the one hand and brown foxes and stoats 

 on the other, would be extremely conspicuous ; and in consequence 

 both pursuer and pursued have to adopt white liveries. In the 

 Highlands of Scotland only one species of hare is met with the 



