COLOURATION AND FORM 73 



occur to me as I write of animals which appear to 

 me to be well protected, either by reason of their 

 form or colouring, or by the nature of the habitat 

 in which they are found. 



The Squirrel is an active, elegant, and amusing 

 creature as it scampers round the bole of a tree, 

 playing hide and seek with the observer, and it 

 may be that his great agility results in his move- 

 ments being difficult to follow, yet when we see 

 this pretty woodland animal darting among the 

 new-foliaged tree-tops in the Springtime, his rich 

 reddish-brown coat seems well calculated to har- 

 monise with the surroundings he so charmingly 

 ornaments. 



I was watching a Brown Rat recently engaged 

 feeding as he sat upon a bank of brown earth, and 

 without the aid of field-glasses it was difficult — 

 even at comparatively close quarters — to make 

 out any definite form of even such a common and 

 distasteful pest. 



Various kinds of Field Mice which frequent 

 hedgerow bottoms, slipping about with lightning 

 rapidity, are well protected among the fallen 

 leaves of a past Summer. 



I have located with some difficulty Rabbits 

 upon a Common, as well as Hares in an open field, 

 whilst the Blue or Mountain Hare changes his 

 fulvous-grey coat of Summer for a white garb in 

 Winter. It will at once be seen that this white 



