LEAF AND TENDRIL 



is as protectively colored as the toad or the tortoise. 

 The porcupine with his armor of quills is as hidden 

 from the eye as the coon, or the woodchuck, or the 

 prairie-dog. Climbing things are as well hidden as 

 creeping things, the mole in the ground as well 

 as the mouse on the surface, the squirrel that flies 

 as well as the squirrel that runs, creatures of the 

 night as well as creatures of the day, the elephant, 

 the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, as well as the 

 smaller animals that are preyed upon. If birds are 

 colored to conceal them from hawks, why are the 

 wild boar, the deer, the hare, similarly colored ? 

 They are not hiding from hawks; their enemies go 

 by scent. The hippopotamus in the Nile is as pro- 

 tectively colored as the camel on the sands, and yet 

 in neither case can protection be the end sought. 

 In Africa there is a white rhinoceros. Behold our 

 mountain goat nearly as white as snow against the 

 dark background of the rocks and mountain-slopes 

 where he lives, and yet he appears to thrive as 

 well as the protectively colored deer. Does not the 

 lion without stripes fare just as well as the tiger 

 with ? Does not our vermilion flycatcher fare just 

 as well as its cousins of duller plumes ? Does not 

 the golden pheasant fare as well as the protectively 

 colored grouse? Everywhere the creative energy 

 seems to have its plain, modest moods and its gaudy, 

 bizarre moods, both in the vegetable and the animal 

 worlds. Why are some flowers so gaudy and others 

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