PATTERNS CONSPICUOUS IN NATURE. 419 



If the consideration of pattern from this aspect be of vakie, then 

 an experimental analysis carried out with artificial patterns and 

 the human eye must be a sound foundation for the study of the 

 subject, at any rate, as regards the visual perception of mammals, 

 provided the human eye is not widely difterent from that of 

 mammals as a whole. The results of this line of investiga.tion 

 show that patterns of animals will bear such an intense stvidy, 

 and indicate that many details of pattern may be of value 

 although they have, up to the present, and on negative evidence, 

 been considered to be unrelated to the visual perception of their 

 own and other species. 



In view of the fact that sight is a most valuable organ of 

 perception, and therefore a most powerful weapon in the struggle 

 for existence, it follows that a study of pattern from this point 

 of view is likely to throw liglit on some of the important problems 

 of Nature. 



