Some Instances of Colour-Protection in Mammals 201 
dirty white, mstead of pure white, owing to the fact that no very strong shade is cast 
on this part. The red coats of the swamp-deer and the smaller members of the 
waterbuck group, or kobs, as well as that of the Indian muntjac, are evidently adaptations 
to the perpetual verdure and bright sunshine of the tropics and subtropical zone, for 
we find that other deer, such as the roebuck, the American white-tail, and, to a less 
degree, our own red deer, which inhabit colder climates and have a rufous coat in 
summer, change their colour in winter to a blue or brownish-grey more in harmony 
with the general dull and sombre tints prevalent during the leafless season of the 
cooler zones. 
Originally it appears that all deer, as well as all the members of certain groups 
of woodland antelopes, were brilliantly spotted or striped with white upon a rufous 
or fawn ground-colour, our reason for this statement being the fact that the young 
of nearly all the species are thus coloured even now, although im many cases them 
parents have a dress of uniform hue. Such white-spotted deer and white-striped 
antelopes were, 1 may be presumed, originally denizens of tropical jungles, where their 
brilhantly-marked dress harmonised with the chequered lights and shades of their 
natural surroundings. The Indian spotted deer or chital has retained this ancestral 
type of colouring, and keeps its dappled livery at all seasons of the year. Moreover, 
unlike some of the uniformly-coloured species referred to above, it has pure white 
under-parts, as well as a large white patch on the throat, imdicating that it is 
accustomed to graze in broad daylight in the open, where the light is brilliant and 
the shadows are sharp and deep. ‘The Philippe spotted deer is another example of 
the same type of colowimg, only in this imstance the ground-colour of the coat has 
been changed from the original rufous fawn to blackish brown. The fallow deer, on 
the other hand, which is a denizen of temperate climates where the leaves fall im 
winter, loses its spots at this season, thus clearly demonstrating that a dappled coat 
RR Graph: by New York Zoological Society. 
A GROUP OF FEMALE AND YOUNG PRONGBUCK. 
