LEAF AND TENDRIL 



colored, while others are more or less brilliantly 

 striped or spotted, is a question not easily answered. 

 It is claimed that spotted and striped species are 

 more diurnal in their habits, and frequent bushes 

 and open glades, while the dusky species are more 

 nocturnal, and frequent dense thickets. In a gen- 

 eral way this is probably true. A dappled coat is 

 more in keeping with the day than with the night, 

 and with bushes and jungles rather than with plains 

 or dense forests. But whether its protective value, 

 or the protective value of the dusky coat, is the. 

 reason for its being, is another question. 



This theory of the protective coloration of animals 

 has been one of the generally accepted ideas in all 

 works upon natural history since Darwin's time. 

 It assumes that the color of an animal is as much 

 the result of natural selection as any part of its 

 structure — natural selection picking out and pre- 

 serving those tints that were the most useful in 

 concealing the animal from its enemies or from its 

 prey. If in this world no animal had ever preyed 

 upon another, it is thought that their colors might 

 have been very different, probably much more 

 bizarre and inharmonious than they are at present. 



Now I am not going to run amuck upon this 

 generally accepted theory of modern naturalists, 

 but I do feel disposed to shake it up a little, and to 

 see, if I can, what measure of truth there is in it. 

 That there is a measure of truth in it I am con- 

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