GAY PLUMES AND DULL 



has no advantage — the protective color does not 

 protect. 



Why should the owl, which hunts by night, be 

 colored like the hawk that hunts by day? If 

 the owl were red, or blue, or green, or black, or 

 white, would it not stand just as good a chance of 

 obtaining a subsistence ? Its silent flight, its keen- 

 ness of vision, and the general obscurity are the 

 main matters. At night color is almost neutralized. 

 Would not the lynx and the bobcat fare just as well 

 if they were of the hue of the sable or the mink? 

 Are their neutral grays or browns any advantage to 

 them? The gray fox is more protectively colored 

 than the red; is he therefore more abundant? Far 

 from it; just the reverse is true. The same remark 

 applies to the red and the gray squirrels. 



The northern hare, which changes to white in 

 winter, would seem to have an advantage over the 

 little gray rabbit, which is as conspicuous upon 

 the snow as a brown leaf, and yet such does not 

 seem to be the case. It is true that the rabbit often 

 passes the day in holes and beneath rocks, and 

 the hare does not; but it is only at night that the 

 natural enemies of each — foxes, minks, weasels, 

 wildcats, owls — are abroad. 



It is thought by Wallace and others that the 



skunk is strikingly marked as a danger signal, its 



contrast of black and white warning all creatures 



to pass by on the other side. But the magpie is 



63 



