GAY PLUMES AND DULL 



like the brook stones and pond margins. The law 

 of assimilation and of local color has done its per- 

 fect work. Were the two birds to change places, 

 each retaining its own color, I do not believe they 

 would be in any more jeopardy than they are 

 now. 



The camel is of a uniform gray like the desert 

 where it is at home, while the camelopard, or giraflFe, 

 a creature of the trees, is dappled or spotted. Is 

 the color in either case protective ? Against what ? 

 Their size and movements would disclose them 

 to their natural enemies wherever they were. 



The lion is desert-colored too. Is this for con- 

 cealment from its prey? But it is said that horses 

 and oxen scent the lion long before they can see him, 

 as doubtless do the wild desert creatures upon 

 which he feeds. Their scent would surely be keener 

 than that of our domesticated animals, and to cap- 

 ture them he must run them down or ambush them 

 where the wind favors him. His desert color is the 

 brand of his environment. If his home were the 

 rocks or the mountains, his color would certainly 

 be different. Nothing could be duller or more neu- 

 tral than the color of the elephant, and surely he is 

 not hiding from any natural enemy, or stalking any 

 game. 



The bright colors of many tropical fish, such as 

 the angel-fish, seem only a reflection of the bright 

 element in which they live. The changing brilliant 

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